Winters Heir
by HiImOlafAndILikeWarmHugs
Summary: Everything seems to be going well in Arendelle with Anna and Elsa back together but like with every story, something has to go wrong. Something goes wrong with Anna and Elsa has a hard time coping. Can Anna and Elsa's relationship survive? Possible hints or mentions of Elsanna.
1. Chapter 1

I stood watching all the people laughing and smiling as they skated around the ice I made. Everybody seemed to be having so much fun and I had to admit, it was kind of nice. With years of almost no social interaction, I forgot what it was like to have fun. It still felt a little foreign, being around so many people, and it felt a little suffocating at times. It was worth it though, with all those happy people. People of all ages loved to skate. It seemed to bring everybody together and I was meeting so many wonderful people. It was Anna's idea to start doing a weekly skating rink for everybody, since everybody enjoyed it so much the first time.

At times it felt a little scary though. What if something went wrong? The fear was always there. What if I lost control of the magic again? It had been a couple of weeks and I hadn't had any problems so far since the incident, but the worry nagged at my mind from time to time. Normally Anna was there to make it less frightening but this time she wasn't around. It was strange. After Anna caught on to skating and was better at it, she would spend the whole time skating around all the people, making sure to talk to everybody she passed.

I looked around for any sign of her and became a little curious when I didn't spot her right away. I kicked off and began skating to look for her. I was sure she was just off skating and talking to new people, but curiosity got the better of me. I finally found her skating with Kristoff, who wasn't doing as well as I expected from somebody who sold ice for a living. I figured that maybe he just wasn't used to being on skates.

I stood and watched, smirking for a minute. Anna had Kristoff's hands and was pulling him along backwards, just how I did with Anna when she was learning. I could hear Anna saying words of encouragment and Kristoff saying, "Yeah, yeah! I got it. I sell ice for a living, I can handle this." Anna had a huge grin on her face.

"Elsa!" Anna shouted when she spotted me. "Look who decided to join us!" I glidded over.

"I see that." I responded with a small smile. "How is that working out?"

"Fine!" Kristoff exclaimed as he almost lost his balance.

"It just takes some getting used to," Anna said as she patted his arm.

"Yeah..." Kristoff grumbled.

"You think you'll be okay for a minute?" Anna turned to Kristoff and asked. "I want to skate around for a minute and see what everybody is doing."

"Oh yeah, of course. Ice is my life, you know." Kristoff said, catching his balance again. Anna started to skate away so I followed her, I figured Kristoff would be fine on his own for a couple of minutes. We skated mostly in silence with the occassional, "Hello!" and "How are you?" to the random people we saw.

"So..." I started. "You and Kristoff."

"What about it?" Anna asked, sounding kind of tired. Something was off, I could tell by the look on her face.

"Nothing," I said as I watched her carefully. We stopped skating. "You guys seem to be getting rather close." Anna squinted slightly and put her hand up to her head, rubbing her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Do you have a headache?" My worry increased when Anna suddenly fell to the ground, her eyes closed. I tried to catch her, but I wasn't quick enough and she crashed onto the cold, hard ice. I knelt down and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Anna?" I asked, fear ripping through me. Her eyes opened. "What's wrong Anna? Are you okay?" She sat up slowly, everybody around us stopped what they were doing to watch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kristoff trying to make his way over.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Anna said. "I just got dizzy for a minute. I'll be alright." She tried to stand up but ended up slipping, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"You don't look fine." I said as I helped her up.

"I just forgot to eat lunch. I'm sure that's what's wrong with me." Anna said, brushing it off. I felt a little better, but still worried.

"Let's go in and get you something to eat then." I said.

"What's going on?" Kristoff asked as he finally made his way over. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine." Anna said. "I just got a little dizzy because I didn't eat lunch." Kristoff looked as skepticle as I felt, but didn't say anymore.

"I'm going to take her into the castle to get something to eat." I told him.

"Do you need any help?" He asked, I shook my head.

" I think I can handle it, thank you though." Kristoff nodded and Anna and I made our way towards the door. I held her arm the entire way, just to make sure she didn't fall again. She protested of course, saying she was fine and wasn't dizzy anymore, but she didn't try very hard to take her arm away from me.

The maids all fussed and I could tell that Anna hated it, but I let them fuss over her. If something was wrong with Anna I wanted to make sure she got all the care she needed. The maids decided that soup of some sort would be good, just in case she was ill and her stomach couldn't handle anything more than that. We sat there in silence while we waited for the soup to come.

"I'm fine, really."Anna said finally. She must have noticed the worry written all over my face. I tried not to look as worried as I felt, but I guess I didn't do a very good job. She placed her hand on top of mine and I noticed how warm it was.

"You better not just be saying that." I said, but smiled slightly. The maid came into the room with the soup and set it in front of Anna.

"I hope it's to your liking." The maid said. Anna closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of the soup.

"Smells amazing." She said as she picked up the spoon. "Thank you!" The maid smiled and took her leave. I watched carefully as Anna ate and soon she started to look better and my worry started fading.

"Feeling better now?" I asked.

"Of course!" Anna responded and she set her spoon down and scooted her chair back. " I told you I just needed to eat."

"Maybe you shouldn't skip anymore meals. Okay?" I said. "And maybe we should relax the rest of the night, just in case" Anna started to protest, but finally agreed after seeing the look on my face.

It was kind of nice. The rest of the evening was quiet. I sat at my desk and did paperwork, as boring as that was, while Anna sat in a chair and read. As much as Anna enjoyed bouncing around and having fun, she also enjoyed settling down to read a good book. When supper was served I watched Anna to make sure she ate it all, pleased when she did so. By the time we were done Anna looked tired and I felt myself getting sleepy too.

"I think I'm going to go to bed, Anna, I suggest you do the same." I said. "It's been a long day." Anna nodded in agreement and we went to our separate bedrooms.

* * *

I always found paperwork to be very boring. With all the reading and signing, the topics could have at least been a little bit interesting. But, it had to be done. Being the queen, it was my duty. I sighed as I looked out the window. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky. I wondered if Anna was outside, she always seemed so happy being outside. I stood to look out the window to see but I frowned when I didn't see her. Normally she would be running around with Olaf on such a beautiful day.

Suddenly Anna came into view with Olaf at her heels and they seemed to be running from something. I didn't know what they could possibly running away from until Marshmallow came into view. It took me a moment to realize they were playing, and Marshmallow wasn't actually trying to hurt my sister and Olaf. Marshmallow was obviously running slow for their benefit but he suddenly got a burst of speed and plucked Anna off the ground. I smiled as Marshmallow started tickling Anna, I didn't even know she was ticklish. Guilt started to nag at me, maybe if I hadn't locked her out I would have known something that simple.

Marshmallow gently set Anna down after Olaf started pounding on his legs. Anna laughed and her and Olaf started running again. Suddenly she stumbled a bit but caught herself. When she started running again she shook her head and rubbed her temples, then dropped to the ground.

I felt my heart stop and my mouth go dry, fear seized me. Marshmallow and Olaf ran over to Anna and Marshmallow picked her up. Olaf started running the other way towards the door. I turned away from the window and took off to meet Anna.

Olaf ran into me about half way and told me that Anna got dizzy and fell. I ran faster, I had a feeling she wasn't as okay as she said. By the time I made it to Anna and Marshmallow I was out of breath.

"Anna!" I exclaimed. " I saw you fall, are you okay?" Marshmallow put Anna down gently.

"I'm fine." Anna said. "I just lost my balance."

"Olaf said you got dizzy." I stated. Anna shot Olaf a glare.

"I'm fine, really Elsa." Anna said. "You don't need to worry."

"It's been two days since the first time and it happened again, I don't think you're fine." I shot back. Anna was so stubborn sometimes, why was it so hard for her to take care of herself when she was ill?

"Look, if it happens again I'll see a doctor." Anna said, annoyed sounding. "But I'm fine."

"Promise?" I asked. It didn't help sooth my worry, but I figured it was probably the best I was going to get.

"Yes, I promise."

* * *

I woke up at my normal time and went for breakfast, surprised to not find Anna there already eating. Normally she was there first. Maybe she ate and left already?

"Has Anna been here yet?" I asked one of the maids.

"No, my dear." The maid said. "Normally she's here bright and early after we coax her out of bed, but I think she's still sleeping." That was odd. Normally the staff got them both up early everyday if we weren't already awake, probably to keep them on a healthy schedule. The staff still treated them like children sometimes.

"Didn't somebody try to wake her?" I asked a little confused.

"Yes, but she just seemed so tired." She replied. "We just let her sleep a bit longer." I turned to go check on her. Sometimes it was hard to wake Anna up when she was tired, but Anna seemed so fatigued lately and had been going to bed early. I knocked lightly on the door and waited for a response. Not hearing any, I knocked a little harder.

"Who is it?" I heard her groan from inside.

"Elsa. May I come in?" I asked, my hand already on the door knob.

"Probably best if you didn't." Anna said. Well that was a first.

"You doing okay?" I questioned.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Anna said, her voice sounded hoarse. I opened the door anyway because I didn't believe her. When I got the door opened I found Anna sitting on the floor over a bucket. It looked like she was being sick, but nothing was in the bucket.

"Anna, whats going on?" Anna looked away. "Look at me, Anna." Anna started to look over but started heaving. "I don't think you're fine."

"I've just been dry heaving. Nothing's coming out." Anna said softly. "The smell from the food is making my stomach flip." I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"I think it's time to see a doctor." I said gently. "It's been about a week and this keeps happening." When she was done heaving she sighed and nodded, looking defeated. Thoughts rushed through my head quickly, what could be wrong? I was scared for my sister. I helped her back into bed, telling her I was going to fetch a doctor to get it all straightened out.

When I came back with the doctor Anna looked better. She wasn't heaving anymore , though she still looked a little tired. I waited outside while the doctor examined her. I paced outside the room for what seemed like hours, but it probably wasn't nearly that long. Finally, the door opened and the doctor came out.

"Is Anna okay?" I demanded. I noticed that he didn't look very worried.

"She is going to be just fine, you may see her." The doctor said.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

"I'll let you discuss that with her." He looked at me, then back towards my sister. I looked past the doctor and saw Anna sitting on her bed. Her face was pale and she was playing with the edge of her blanket, looking nervous. That wasn't something I was used to seeing on her face. Without another word I pushed past the doctor and walked into Anna's room. She didn't look up.

"So what did he have to say?" I asked, pulling up a chair.

"He said I'm going to be fine." Anna said. I could tell she didn't want to say anything more.

"What was wrong with you, then?" I wondered. Anna bit her lip, still looking down. "You can tell me." She shook her head.

"You'll hate me." Was all she said.

"No I won't." I said surprised. Why would I hate her for being ill?

" Fine, I'm pregnant!" Anna exclaimed, putting her face in her hands. I sat in shock. Had I heard her right? Pregnant? Who had she been with? Was it Kristoff? They seemed close, but not that close. More like good friends.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"It looks like I'm pregnant." Anna said, peeking out from her fingers.

"Who were you with?" I asked, not really comprehending. "Kristoff?" Anna shook her head, confusing me even more. I didn't know she was seeing anybody else.

"Who?" I demanded, something like anger rising from deep inside.

"I don't really want to talk about it." Anna said quietly.

"Anna, tell me who got you pregnant." I said. Anna took a breath, looking like she was going to cry.

"Hans." She said quietly. I stared at her for a moment. Hans? That couldn't be right. Anna couldn't have made a baby with Hans.

"Hans?" I asked, the rage swirling inside even more. Anna nodded. I sat there for a moment, thinking and watching her. How could she make such a stupid mistake? Finally not knowing what to say, I stood up to go to my room to cool off and think about the situation a little. I ignored Anna's plea behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

When I wasn't spending time with Anna or doing paperwork, one of my favorite things to do was look out the window. Sometimes I would stand there and watch people go about their daily business and I would make stories up about what their lives could be like. I spotted a scrawny man walking quickly though with a sack in his hand. I imagine that he's probably got a beautiful wife back home, two children perhaps. A boy and a girl probably. The boy probably takes after his father with his red hair and freckles, the girl probably takes after her mother. I imagined she would have strawberry blond hair. In my head he was on his way home because it was his daughter's birthday and in the sack was a gift of some sort for her. Maybe it was...

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a familiar knock at the door. I bit my lip. It had been a couple of days and I still hadn't come out to talk to Anna. I knew I was avoiding it, but I couldn't figure out why it bothered me so much. I didn't want to confront her until I figured it out. It was pretty bad that she had been intimate with Hans, who tried to kill us and take the kingdom, and the thought that my little sister was pregnant in the first place was enough to upset me. She was too young to have children. She wasn't a child anymore, but she still had a lot of living to do before having to care for a child.

"Elsa?" Anna asked softly. "I know you're in there. Come out please?" She sounded so upset. Part of me really just wanted to open the door and let her in. Part of me wanted to hug her and apologize for shutting her out. The other part of me was just too upset and afraid. I had to think about it a little longer, I just didn't know what to say to her. The feeling were all so very new and confusing.

"You said you'd never shut me out, remember?" Anna tried. " I know I made a mistake. Maybe we could just talk about it." I couldn't say anything. I walked over to the door and placed my hand on it. Ice started to spread from my fingers so I removed my hand and made a fist by my side. My sister was out there. My pregnant sister. I promised not to shut her out, so why was I?

"This is why I didn't want to tell you." Anna suddenly sounded angry. "I knew you were going to hate me, Elsa!" There was a bang on the door like she slammed her fist on it and I heard her footsteps leaving.

"But I don't hate you." I finally said after it was too late.

* * *

Anna returned the next day. I closed the book I was reading when I heard her special knock and got up to go stand by the door. I listened carefully but Anna didn't say anything and I almost wondered if I just imagined it. Then one quiet, barely there, knock sounded through the door.

"I'm sorry." was all Anna said. I wanted to open the door and let her in, but I didn't. I spent what seemed like forever thinking about why I was so upset and I still couldn't figure out all the different emotions. There was anger, of course, there was worry and fear, but was there a hint of jealousy too? Why would I be jealous? That was just stupid. She was pregnant with Han's baby.

"I wish we could just talk. It doesn't even have to be about the baby." Anna said. I heard her slide down onto the floor so I did the same. "Marshmallow has been kind of cranky lately." I raised my eyebrow, she wanted to talk about Marshmallow? That was odd, but I shrugged. I was willing to listen.

"I remember when I found your palace and you created Marshmallow to get me and Kristoff to go away. We were outside of the palace and Marshmallow calmed down a little but I was mad so I threw a snowball at him, even though Kristoff told me not to." Anna said. I smiled, that was so like Anna. "Oh, did that ever anger him! He ended up chasing us to the end of a cliff. Kristoff made a snow anchor and we started to go down it but then Marshmallow started pulling the rope up. When he got us up to his level he yelled in out faces to not come back." Anna took a pause. It had been a couple of weeks and I still hadn't heard all of her stories. I thought they were interesting and while I put her through so much and I still felt really horrible, I still liked hearing about her adventure.

"I cut the rope and we fell. To be honest, I was a little afraid but I tried not to act like it. Kristoff said it was a 200 foot drop." I felt my heart squeeze. She fell 200 feet? How on earth did she make it alive? " There was a lot of soft snow, it was like landing on a pillow sort of." Anna went silent for awhile.

"It's kind of weird, but I think Marshmallow feels the things that you feel. You wanted us out that day, so he wanted us out. When you're happy, he's happy. When you're worried, he's worried. When you're upset...he gets upset. Right now he's upset. Nobody is getting through to him, he just stomps around all grumpy." I bit my lip.

"I don't understand." Anna said. "People have been wondering where you've been. I don't know what to tell them. Things were going so well. I'm sorry if I ruined it." I heard her stand up and walk away, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

* * *

I jerked awake but it took me a moment to realize what woke me up. For a moment my heart pounded and I whipped around to see if there was somebody standing there. There wasn't anybody anywhere in the room so I calmed down. Maybe I was dreaming. Then I heard it again. Anna's special knock. I frowned, it was only a little after five in the morning, what was she doing up so early? We didn't have to be up for a couple of hours. I pushed the blankets back on my bed and went over to the door.

"You don't have to let me in, but could I just talk to you?" Anna asked. Was I supposed to say something? "I had a nightmare." I frowned. What was her nightmare about?

"I've been having them almost every night. Most of them aren't that bad and are more uncomfortable than scary, but usually you're there in the morning at breakfast and that makes the bad ones seem not so bad." Guilt flooded me. How had I not noticed? I should have been there for her.

"Normally they're of when I got turned into ice. Sometimes I dream that Hans got to you before I did and he killed you before I could stop him. Those are the worst. Sometimes I dream that you lock yourself away from me again and I never see you again and those are pretty bad too." I frowned. That's what I was doing again. I was locking her out, just like in her nightmares.

"I'm sorry I got pregnant with Han's baby. It happened on Coronation night. We snuck away where there was nobody." Anna said, her voice cracking. "I didn't mean to. I didn't know I would get pregnant. I didn't even think of that." Of course Anna didn't think of that. She never really thought things through. "Please...please just come out."

I couldn't handle it anymore. It sounded like Anna needed me to be there for her. I took a deep breath and placed my hand on the doorknob. I closed my eyes for a minute, then turned the door knob and pulled the door open. Anna was standing there, looking lost and out of place. There were dark circles under her eyes and she was still wearing her night gown.

"You opened the door." She stated confused. I nodded.

"It seemed like you needed me." I responded.

"I'm really sorry." Anna said quietly. "I shouldn't have let him...I shouldn't have had sex with Hans. He just kept saying how it was true love and that he loved me, I thought it was right." My mind raced, she sounded very nervous.

"Shouldn't have let him? What do you mean?" I demanded suddenly angry. "Did he force you?"

"No!" Anna answered too quickly. "I wanted it. But...now I'm not sure if I wanted it because he loved me and I thought I loved him, or if I really actually wanted it."

All I heard was that she wanted it. She wanted it? What was I feeling? I wasn't sure what it was but it was starting to boil. I could hear my blood pounding in my ear. My hands started to shake and I turned around, I couldn't look at her right then.

"Elsa?" Anna asked, "Are you okay?" The wall that I was facing started to ice over. I took a deep breath and tried to control my feelings. Conceal, don't feel. Suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder.

Surprised, I quickly moved away from the warm hand that landed softly on my shoulder. Images flashed through my mind. Hitting Anna in the head with ice, hitting Anna in the chest with ice, creating a deadly winter storm...Combined with all the feelings I had raging inside, it was too much. I threw my hands down almost in desperation to get the feelings to go away. I then heard something that sounded like cracking and a gasp come from behind me. I was almost afraid to look

I turned around quickly to see what happened. I was right to be afraid to look. A good chunk of the hall where we stood was frozen and there was icy spikes were along the wall. I looked towards Anna and gasped. She stood hunched over with her hands on her stomach, she was looking at me with a pained expression.

"Anna!" I called, rushing to her side. I did it again. I let my powers get out of control and I hurt my sister. Just as I reached her she fell to the ground with her eyes closed. I called her name and shook her but she wouldn't wake up.

"My dear! Whatever happened?" I heard from behind me. I turned teary eyed to find the maid who cared for us since we were young, Greta. Thoughts rushed through my mind, what was I supposed to do. Trolls. They would be able to help, wouldn't they?

"I need to take her to the trolls. They would know what to do." I said. I noticed how confused and worried Greta looked, so I looked away. "Can you get Kristoff?" I didn't hear her response as I reached forward to pick up Anna. She was heavier than I expected but I managed to get her into my arms. I made the long walk to the gates with her in my arms.

"I need a horse." I told one of the guards that was standing there. He immediately left to go get one just as Greta and Kristoff showed up, Sven at their heels.

"I need you to take me to the trolls." I told Kristoff. "I accidentally hit her with ice." The worried look on his face made me feel even more guilty than I already was. I deserved all the guilt and then some. This was the third time I hit Anna with ice.

The guard came back with the horse I asked for and I handed Anna off to Kristoff. He got on Sven, Anna securely in his arms. We took off running. I felt numb, I couldn't feel anything and I couldn't hear anything except the hoofs pounding on the ground and the blood pulsing quickly through my veins. My eyes were fixed on Anna's head bouncing up and down from the movement of Sven running.

It seemed like an eternity but we finally made it to the Trolls. Like last time, big boulders rolled up to meets us and they all took form.

"It's the queen and princess." I heard one of them say. "Kristoff, what is this about?" Suddenly they all split as the one that healed Anna before came through. Pabbie looked at me, his face scrunched up but didn't say anything to me.

"Hold her down here, Kristoff." He said. Kristoff knelt down and I moved closer.

"Can you help her?" I asked after a moment, I was scared. What if he couldn't help her? I hadn't thought of that until right then. What If I killed Anna? What if I killed her baby? The thought was devastating. I was such a monster. Pabbie placed his hand on Anna's stomach and scrunched his face in concentration.

"She's with child." He stated, almost sounding confused. Kristoff's head snapped over to look at me, complete confusion all over his face. I just swallowed, realizing that nobody knew yet and looked back at Pabbie.

"Yeah." I said. "Is the baby... Is it okay?" Pabbie nodded slowly.

"I can save it and your sister, but it has a cost."

"What is it?" I asked, relief flooding me. I didn't care much what it was, as long as Anna and the baby would make it out alive.

"This will be the only child she will ever be able to carry." Pabbie said. Oh... That baby was going to be the only heir. I bit my lip. Of course we would have to live with that, wouldn't we?

"Just...Just do it, please." I said, my voice shaky. Pabbie nodded and placed his hand on Anna's stomach. With a look of concentration on his face, he removed the ice from Anna's stomach. I breathed a sigh of relief, the color was already coming back to Anna's face.

"Elsa, you need to control it." Pabbie said with a stern look on his face. "Fear only makes it worse. You can do such beautiful things with your power, if only you would learn to let the fear go."

"I know! I never wanted it to happen again." I said desperately. I had to figure things out. I couldn't risk hurting Anna, or anybody for that matter, ever again. "Thank you so much for helping her and the baby."

"I think we should take her home now." Kristoff added. Anna was still out, but she was looking better every minute. I agreed, getting Anna home was an excellent idea. But, what was I going to tell her? I almost killed her baby. I hurt her again, even after all the trust she put into me. I ruined things again. I couldn't risk it anymore.

Anna woke up before we made it back to the castle and asked what happened. She was confused and didn't really seem to remember much. Kristoff told her we would talk about it when we made it back to the castle. I dreaded making it back, but we eventually did.

"So is somebody going to tell me what's going on?" Anna asked once the horse was put back and we were standing outside. I bit my lip and glanced at Anna, I felt ashamed of myself for what I did. "I remember trying to talk to Elsa...Then cold."

"I...I threw ice into your stomach." I said quietly. "It was an accident. We took you to Pabbie to have it removed."

"What about the baby?" Anna suddenly looked worried. She placed her hands over her stomach.

"The baby is fine but..."

"But what?" Anna questioned anxiously.

"But you can never have any other children ever again." I said. "I'm so sorry, Anna." I didn't stick around long enough to hear if she responded, I fled to the castle. Before going inside I looked back for just a moment, and saw Kristoff hugging Anna. I couldn't see Anna's face, but by the way he was rubbing her back and the look on his face, he was soothing her. She was upset. I quickly shut the door and ran to my room, slamming the door shut behind me. I realized, she was best off without me. All I ever did was hurt Anna. Things would seem to be going well and then I would find some way to ruin it. Anna and Kristoff would be better off together.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: _This is one of my first fanfictions ever so I don't know how it's really going. I would love to have some feedback so if you guys could leave a review that would be great. If you like it, love it, or even hate it, leave me a review and tell me why. But if you hated it, please leave constructive criticism._

* * *

Chapter three

I pace back and fourth in my room as I try to calm myself down. I didn't know what to do and things were getting out of hand. I cared so much about Anna...So why did I keep hurting her? I was just so afraid all of the time and I didn't know how to make it go away. Sometimes just being around Anna helped the fear go away. But then other times I was just so afraid of hurting her that it was crippling and nothing helped but locking myself in my room until it went away.

I stopped pacing to look around my room. It was full of ice and the fear I was feeling intensified. I knew logically that the more afraid I was, the worse it got so I tried to calm down. I sat down on my bed and took a deep breath. Conceal, don't feel. That never really worked. How do you not feel? Was that even possible? Feelings were always swirling deep inside, and try as I might, I could never get them to go away. '_fear will only make it worse. You have to control it.' _echoed in my mind.

I remembered back to the great thaw and how love was the answer. Love will thaw. How would that help me now? Anna probably hated me and I didn't blame her. How many times does your sister almost kill you before you stop loving her? Of course, she still didn't remember the first time when I hit her in the head, but freezing her solid should have been enough of a warning for Anna.

Anna was all I had left. For years, all I had was Mama and Papa and even then I never let them touch or hug me when they were still alive. I was too afraid that I would hurt them. After the Great Thaw I realized that I had Anna. But now I ruined it. I was going to be all alone like I was before. But It didn't really matter, did it? As long as Anna was happy and healthy, it didn't matter what I felt or thought. Her and Kristoff could just got off and have a great life together. Maybe Kristoff could take the fatherly role for the child that Anna was carrying and they could be a family.

I froze when there was a knock on the door. It almost sounded like Anna...but that was impossible, wasn't it? Why would Anna be knocking at my door? I decided to ignore it. It was probably just Greta or another maid. The person on the other side knocked again, there was no mistaken that time. That was Anna's special knock. The fact that Anna was back, knocking at my door broke my heart. She was probably coming back to tell me what a monster I was. If that's what she was going to say, I didn't really want to hear it. But I knew I deserved it.

"Elsa?" Anna called through the door. "This is getting kind of old, you know. You can't just keep locking yourself up all the time when something goes wrong." I was confused, that wasn't what I was expecting to hear. Where was all the anger?

"You made a mistake, so what? We all make them!" Anna said. She sounded like she genuinely forgave me, but how could that be?

"I almost killed you." I ground out. "You and your baby. That's not just some mistake that somebody makes."

"I don't really understand what happened the other night, but maybe if we talked about it we could figure it out." Anna said softly. "You just need to learn how to talk about things with people. I can help you, but not if you don't tell me what you're feeling."

"I don't know what I'm feeling!" I exclaimed loudly, causing icy spikes to form all over my room.

"That's where I can help you!" Anna sounded hopeful. I shook my head, why wouldn't she understand. Anna rambled on and on about how she could help me and that things would be alright.

"Enough Anna. You can't help me. Just go away."

"I'm not leaving you alone again. I'm going to be here for you, like I said I would." Anna said, making my stomach twist. A smile threatened to appear on my face, but I forced it back. Being near Anna was a terrible idea. I was just trying to protect her.

"Just please, go away." I said through the door. "Just go off and be with Kristoff. He seems like a good guy, he will take care of you. It would be better if you stayed away from me from now on. Forever."

"But I want you around." Anna practically whined. "You said you would never lock me away again, you did before and I forgive you but please, I love you."

"I don't care." I forced out painfully. "Go away." I must have gotten through to her because I heard footsteps leaving. I slid down the wall and pulled my knees to my chest. I put my hands up to my face and I couldn't help the tears that slipped through. Sobs racked through my chest painfully. I could feel my heart break into a million pieces and I knew I deserved it, but why did it have to hurt so much? At least Anna would forget about me and have a happy life with Kristoff.

* * *

Anna came back a couple of times over the next couple of day, but I never answered her knocks. It was hard but locking people out was what I was good at. Anna was right on the night of coronation, it was all I knew how to do. Anna didn't say anything when she came, but I recognized her knock. I wondered how long it would take before Anna gave up and left me alone. I hoped it was soon, it was painful to have her outside of my door wanting me to come out when she should know that I couldn't

The next knock I heard wasn't Anna's, however. It was just a normal knock. I debated whether I should answer it or not. As the queen, I needed to take care of things if something was wrong. The knock didn't sound urgent. I wondered who was on the other side and curiosity got the better of me.

"Who is it?" I called out.

"Its just me, my dear." It was Greta. Sweet and kind Greta. I wondered what she wanted.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No, I just wanted to check up on you." Greta sounded worried. She would be, Greta always worried about Anna and I, even when it wasn't needed.

"I'm fine. You can stop worrying."

"What's got you all locked up in your room again?" She asked. "Won't you come out? I love seeing you outside of your room, happily talking to Anna and your little snow creatures. I miss seeing you walking around the halls."

"I can't." was all I said. Why wouldn't anybody just leave me alone?

"You can if you want. Nobody is making you stay in there except yourself." Greta said. "Anna misses you. I've seen her wondering around aimlessly. She always has these dark circles under her eyes. I think she needs her sister back."

"Yeah well, I can't come out. Not after everything I've done." I said sadly. There was a pause from the other side of the door.

"Do you want to talk about it?" If I had to talk about my feelings with anybody, Greta probably would be the easiest. But talking to people wasn't something that I was used to and I wouldn't know where to start. Better to keep it inside where nobody could find it.

"Talking always makes me feel better when I have a problem." Greta said. "But if you don't want to talk about it sometimes it helps to write it down. Or you could do art of some sort, or something else that you love to do. You always should get the feelings out sometimes. otherwise it will tear you apart until there's nothing left." I thought about that. I used to love drawing and writing as a child, perhaps I should give that a shot again.

"Yeah, maybe I'll try one of those." I said through the door. "Thank you, Greta."

"No problem, dear. Let me know if you need anything." And with that she was gone. I got up and went over to me desk. I pulled out a pencil and a piece of paper and set it on the desk. I stared at the paper for a moment. What was I supposed to write. My feelings and thoughts? Perhaps I should have asked Greta before she left.

Well Greta said that writing and talking helped when she had a problem, so maybe I should start with the root of it all.

"_I keep hurting Anna._" I wrote on the piece of paper. I stared down at the sentence. I didn't feel better, maybe I just had to write more. Why did I keep hurting Anna?

"_I don't know why I keep hurting her. All three times were accidents. The first time I wanted to catch her when she fell and I missed. The second and third time my feelings got the better of me and I hurt her." _I reread what I wrote so far, It still wasn't making me feel any better.

"_It makes me feel guilty and self loathing. I love my sister more than anything, and all I do is hurt her. Pabbie said I just need to learn how to control it, but I don't know how to control it at all. Whenever I think I've got it, I get scared or frustrated or angry and that's when the magic loses control. Conceal, don't feel. Papa always told me that. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them see. I can't stop feeling." _I stopped writing and I looked angrily at the paper. How was this supposed to make me feel better? If anything it was making it worse. I grabbed the paper and crumpled it into a ball, then I threw it across the room. It bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. I would pick it up later, I figured. I was going to take a nap.

* * *

I felt like I had just fallen asleep when I heard the knock at the door. It was probably just Greta coming back to see if It worked. I closed my eyes again and tried to ignore her, I would talk to her later. My eyes quickly opened when I heard the knock again. It wasn't Greta or any other maids, it was Anna. I wanted to tell her to go away, I wanted to say it was pointless to keep coming back. But I just sat up on the bed and didn't say anything.

"Elsa!" Anna said from the other side of the door. "You've been in there long enough now, I think it's time you came out." I raised my eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Greta's words rang in my mind. Anna was lonely and missed me.

"Would you please let me in?" Of course part of me really wanted to let her in, but it was for the best. Suddenly I heard the door knob turning. My head snapped over to look as the door slowly swung open. How had Anna gotten the door open? Nobody had a key. Unless...Perhaps I had forgotten to lock it. But that didn't sound right, I always locked it automatically. I scrambled off my bed and stood by the wall.

"I didn't think your door would actually be unlocked." Anna said quietly as she stood in the doorway. "Was it unlocked all this time?" I looked at her, standing there. She looked beautiful, even with the dark circles under her eyes and pale face. She had grown up well over the years. Anna's hand rested softly on her still flat stomach.

I didn't know what to say. "You shouldn't be here." Was all I managed.

"But I missed you." Anna almost whispered. I looked away in shame. Even when I was trying to protect her I was hurting her.

"You should go." Instead, Anna stepped in further and shut the door behind her. Great, what was I supposed to do?

"You can calm down." Anna said, "No need to freeze the room, it's just me." I looked at my room, it was completely covered in ice. I swallowed. My room was freezing and Anna was standing there. What if I hurt her again? Panic started to set in.

"If you don't cut it out I'm going to have to get a fire going." Anna joked as she strode over to the window to look outside of it. Why was she so calm? Did she not see the danger she was in?

"You need to leave..." I tried again.

"Sorry, not happening." Anna said, spinning around to look at me. "You are not locking yourself away from me again." Her eyes fell to something on the floor and I followed her gaze to the piece of paper that I was writing earlier. Before I had a chance to react, she picked the paper up and began to read it. I reached forward to take it form her hands, but withdrew my hand. I didn't want to accidentally freeze her.

"You don't want to read that." I said quickly. "Please just put it down. It's not important." She didn't put it down though, she read it all the way through. I looked away quickly, I didn't want to see her face. Would she be upset? Disgusted with me? I didn't know. For a moment Anna didn't say anything.

"Oh Elsa," She finally sighed. Anna set the paper on the desk and strode over to me. I backed away so she wouldn't touch me but she grabbed hold of my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I was so nervous, I didn't make any move to hug her. I held my breath as if I thought it might keep the ice inside.

"This is where you wrap your arms around me and return the hug." Anna whispered in my ear, she sounded unsure of herself. Was she worried I wouldn't hug her back? If I didn't, would it be the last straw? Would she finally leave me alone for good? As if on their own accord, my arms wrapped themselves gently around Anna. Finally, after a couple of seconds she pulled away.

"You loathe yourself?" Anna asked softly, looking me in the eyes. I tried to look away but she wouldn't let me. " I think we need to talk about things. Why would you have self loathing feelings?" I bit my lip. Why was she putting me through such torture?

"You know why." I stated. "You read the paper."

"Yes, but obviously writing it down didn't work." She gestured around the still frozen room. "So lets talk." She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the bed and pushed me down so I was sitting on it. Then she sat down next to me. "I'm here to listen." I didn't say anything for a moment.

"I never meant for any of this to happen." I said quietly. "I just want to protect you. That's all I've ever wanted to do."

"You don't need to, though." Anna said. " I'm not afraid of you."

"You should be." I felt tears prickling at my eyes. I couldn't let her see my tears so I turned my head away.

"Why should I be afraid of you? You're my sister."

"Yeah, the sister that I keep hurting." I mumbled. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"You just need to have more confidence." Anna said. " When you're confident in yourself, you're absolutely wonderful. Look at that palace you created! You're powers are amazing, you just need to realize that. Have confidence and realize how great your powers are and you'll be able to control them."

I smiled as I remembered the palace I created from ice when I ran away, it was pretty amazing. I had so much fun creating it and for the first time in my life, I felt like I had control over things. But how was I supposed to achieve that level of confidence again? The only reason I felt that way before was because I thought there was nobody around to hurt but as it turned out, I was wrong. I managed to freeze everything.

"If I was in such control, why did I put everybody in a deep freeze?" I asked, "And I didn't even know I had done it." Anna looked thoughtful for a moment.

" To be honest, I don't really know." Anna said. "But I'm sure we can figure it out. Together." I shook my head.

"I don't know..."

"It will be okay and I'm not letting you lock yourself up away again." Anna said as she grabbed my hand. I looked up into her eyes, searching. She seemed so sincere. " Now you know how to unthaw the winter. Remember? Love. So if, for some reason, it ever happened again just give me a big hug and the winter will thaw." I allowed myself a small smile.

"But what if I freeze you like I did before? I don't think one person could survive being froze twice."

"Why do you think so lowly of yourself?" Anna asked. " I think the only reason that happened before was because you don't trust yourself."

"But how do I trust myself?" I asked. I cringed at how broken my voice sounded.

"That's what I'm here for. We will figure it out together." Anna said. "I'd say we are off to a decent start." I was confused until I noticed the ice in the room melted and the temperature was back to normal. Anna leaned over and kissed my cheek, then stood up and strode to the door.

"I have to go for now, I promised Kristoff and Sven that I would spend time with them." She turned to walk out the door, then took one more look at me.

"Don't you dare lock this door, Elsa." She said sternly. I just nodded stupidly and watched her bounce out the door. It looked like a huge weight was lifter off her shoulders and to be honest, I kind of felt the same way. I suddenly smiled and just as Anna told me not to, I didn't lock my door.


	4. Chapter 4

_Authors Note: I wanted to mention that Greta is my own character, I'm not just misspelling Gerda over and over again. Sorry if anybody was confused. Also, if anybody notices any plot holes or mistakes or if something doesn't make sense, please let me know._

* * *

Chapter four

I yawned and stretched as I sat up in bed. I had been sleeping really well lately, ever since I accidentally let Anna in. Seeing as it was a little after seven in the morning, I pushed the blankets back and got out of bed. I wondered why nobody had knocked at my door to wake me, but maybe they were just a bit late. Or maybe they were having trouble getting Anna awake. That was probably more likely.

I quickly changed my clothes and did my hair before exiting my room. I looked around and it was really nice to be out of my room. True to my word, I didn't lock Anna out that day. I kept my door unlocked and I left my room during the day. On Saturday we even had the skating rink open again, even as terrifying as that was for me. So many people asked where I was, they all seemed to be worried about me. It made me a little uncomfortable, but noticing my uneasy feelings Anna quickly jumped in and just said I hadn't been feeling well. When I told them that I was feeling fine now, their worry disappeared and I was relieved.

I was about to head for breakfast when I heard what sounded like a wail coming from Anna's room. I saw a maid quickly leave her room as Greta quickly entered. Worry filled my chest. The wail sounded like it was coming from Anna herself, but what would she have to be making such a noise for? Anna was always so happy. I forgot about breakfast and quickly made my way to Anna's room.

When I peered inside I saw Greta sitting on the side of Anna's bed and Anna was lying on her side crying. The sight made my heart break. I wasn't sure what could have happened. When they parted way last night Anna was in such a good mood. Maybe she had a nightmare? I remembered when Anna came to my door and told me she had them sometimes.

"What's wrong, princess?" Greta asked. Her hand reached forward to gently brush the tears from Anna's face.

"I don't know!" Anna wailed as she buried her face in her pillow. "I just don't know!"

"If I didn't know any better, with what I've been noticing I'd say you were pregnant." Greta said bluntly. I almost choked. "This is how your mother acted when she was pregnant with Elsa. Exactly the same. But that couldn't be right, you're not pregnant, are you?" Anna stopped crying for a moment and stared at Greta. She sat up.

"This is how mama was?" Anna wondered.

"Oh, just the same. It started with dizziness and fatigue with her and then almost the same time between when I noticed your dizziness and fatigue and now, was about the same amount of time before your mother started getting emotional in her pregnancy." Greta said matter a fact.

Tears filled Anna's eyes again and she covered her face in her hands as she began to sob. Greta just reached forward and started rubbing her back again.

"Greta, I'm pregnant!" Anna cried. "I really am!"

"I know dear, like I said, your mom was the same." Greta said. "For her, she was the most emotional at the beginning and end of the pregnancy, and was fine in the middle. I was just waiting for you to tell me." Anna started to calm down and stopped crying.

I almost jumped when Greta looked over and noticed me standing in the door. For some reason I felt like I was trespassing or intruding on something private.

"Oh Elsa, good morning." Greta said to me.

"Good morning." I said quietly. "I heard Anna crying so I came to see what was wrong."

"Elsa." Anna sniffed and wiped the tears away. "Good morning."

"Is everything alright?" I asked, unsure. "Do you need anything?"

"I'm alright." Anna said, a small smile on her face. "I'm going to get dressed now. I'll meet you at breakfast." Greta patted Anna on the shoulder and then stood. Once Greta and I were outside Anna's room she turned to me as we walked towards the dining room.

"She's going to need you now, more than ever." She looked stern. She probably figured I was going to run away again, to leave everybody and lock myself in my room.

"You think so?" I asked. Of course, I knew she was right.

"No, I don't think so. I know so." Greta said. "I don't know exactly what's going on around here half the time, but I don't think she will be able to handle this alone. Being pregnant is a great and magical thing, but it can also be very stressful. Especially for her, being so young. Who's the father anyway?" I cringe. I didn't really want to tell her.

"Hans." I said. "On coronation night." Anger suddenly flared deep in my chest. Images of Anna and Hans filled my mind. Images of Anna enjoying it was enough to send ice creeping along the wall.

"Oh, good heavens!" Greta exclaimed, pretending to not notice the temperature drop. "The Hans that tried to kill you both and take over the kingdom?"

"The very same." I almost growled.

"The poor dear!" Greta looked visibly upset. "There are going to be some emotional months up ahead. Be there for her."

"I will." I nodded. "Maybe...Maybe don't tell anybody who the father is. Not just yet, anyway. I don't think Anna wants it spread around."

"Oh! of course not, my lips are sealed." Greta said. "Now, you go in and enjoy some breakfast before you start the day. I think there's going to be a meeting later on about trading partners or such. You best be ready for it." I groaned inwardly. Meetings. Those I didn't miss while I was locked in my room. Some were fairly interesting, but others practically bored me to death. If I remembered correctly, the one scheduled today was with Wesselton. They wanted to start trading with us again. After how they acted towards me, I had a feeling they were going to be going home disappointed.

I got my feelings under control enough to melt the ice and entered the dinning room. The smell of delicious food filled the air. Wilma, the head cook, always out did herself. I smiled as I sat down in my spot. I wondered if I should wait for Anna, then decided that it would be polite if I did.

I didn't have to wait long. Anna pushed the doors open, looking much more cheerful than earlier, and waltzed over to her spot right to my left.

"Wilma always does a good job with the food, doesn't she?" Anna said, looking a little nervous suddenly. I noticed that she was a little nervous around me ever since the day she got into my room. Did she suddenly realize what a bad idea it was to have me around? Was she finally realizing what a monster I was? She probably thought I was going to hurt her. But I was tired of breaking my promises, I wasn't going to lock my door again unless she asked me. I could have it all wrong, doubtful, but I'd been wrong before.

"Can I ask you something?" Anna asked, wringing her hands. "I've been wondering since I read that paper in your room." Well, that probably couldn't be good. There was nothing good written on that paper.

"Sure." I found myself saying, though I wasn't sure I wanted to know what she wanted to ask. I tried to hide my nervousness.

"I just wanted to know...In the paper you wrote that you hit me three times." She said. I nodded. What was she getting at?

"I don't remember the one when we were kids." She continued. I mentally kicked myself. Of course she didn't remember, Pabbie altered the memories.

"Pabbie removed the memories of when it happened, and all the memories of my...powers." I said carefully.

"So what happened, then? That time when we were kids." Anna asked, she started piling eggs, toast, and fruit on her plate so I did the same.

"It's really hard for me to talk about it, Anna." I said weakly, hoping she would just leave it be.

"Oh." Anna said, she looked disappointed. Guilt ate at me, and I wasn't sure where exactly it was coming from but I felt the need to tell her the whole story.

"Can I tell you later? Maybe tonight when everybody is all settled down and I don't have any meetings?" I asked. That way I could prepare myself. Anna perked up considerably.

"Oh! Oh, sure!" She said looking surprised. "Uh, promise?" I hesitated. I hated making promises. What if I broke them? I looked into Anna's hopeful eyes and couldn't deny her.

"I promise." I said. Anna smiled so big I thought her face was going to split in half. "Eat your breakfast." I couldn't help smiling myself, already forgetting that I would have to spill the story later on.

Wilma always made the most perfectly fluffy eggs I had ever seen, I wondered how she did it. On the couple of times I tried to make eggs, they never turned out fluffy. Those couple of times I tried, they normally came out overcooked and burnt. I never was one for cooking.

The strawberries that she prepared were absolutely perfect. She cut out the stems and leaves, just how Anna and I liked them and they were really fresh. I took a berry and popped it into my mouth whole. When I was finished I reached for another one but stopped when I noticed Anna looking at me with a strange look on her face. I pulled my hand back in confusion.

"What?" I asked, concerned. Was she sick?

"What? Nothing!" Anna exclaimed, she looked back down at her plate.

"You sure? You're not sick are you?" I wondered.

"No, I feel good." Anna said. I couldn't hide my confusion. Then what had the look been for?

"Really Elsa, I'm fine." Anna said. "You need to stop worrying about me all the time."

"Okay, if you say so." I said. I was still unsure, but I went back to my plate.

"I have a meeting to attend to after breakfast." I said. "If I remember correctly, it's with Wesselton again."

"They sure are persistent." Anna said as she stuffed some toast into her mouth.

"Yes, they are." I replied. "I've already told them that I want nothing to do with them and their trading. Everything they have to offer we can get elsewhere."

"Why do they keep coming back, then?" Anna asked.

"They keep saying they have something new that we might be interested in." I replied. "So far I haven't been that impressed. But who knows, maybe they really have something this time." I doubted it. Even if they did have something that we couldn't get somewhere else, I probably still wouldn't want to do any trading with them. Just having them come for a meeting made me uncomfortable as it was.

We didn't talk for the rest of the meal, but Anna kept glancing up at me. It was almost like she thought I was going to disappear in thin air. The thought saddened me. Was it really that hard on her, with me being locked away? Stupid question. I knew it was. That's why she came back, day after day, trying to get me to come out. I left her all alone in the world.

Once we were done with breakfast we parted our separate ways. She said she was off to go find Marshmallow and Olaf, and I was off to my meeting. I tried to be polite when I greeted them, offered them some tea and shook their hands. The scrawny little man bowed to me, his hair falling forward just as it had done the first time I met him during coronation. I tried not to snort with laughter.

We sat, sipping our tea in silence for a moment. They all looked shocked when I breathed out and my breath steamed from the warm tea. I smirked. I still wasn't sure of their motives, exactly, but messing with them was kind of fun. And after they acted towards me, I figured some harmless fun would be fine. Besides, it was just my breath steaming. I couldn't hardly help that, as my body temperature was much lower than a normal humans and the tea was hot. I took another sip and breathed deeply and watched their horrified stares with a smirk on my face.

They meeting quickly began and I was quickly distracted. Just as I thought, they didn't have anything that I wanted or needed. I had a feeling they were just trying to get into the castle and probably find away to get rid of me. When they were near, I always had some guards just in case. I knew I could take them with my powers, but I just couldn't bring myself to use them. Even in self defense.

They managed to make the meeting last hours, well after lunch time and nearly in time for supper. I was starting to get antsy when they finally concluded. They had handed me paperwork to sign, to get the trades going. I looked at them, frowning, then took the stack and ripped them in half.

The men looked shocked as I handed the papers back.

"This is the last time we will be meeting. As with the first five times, the answer is still no." I said a little forcefully as I stood. "Leave, and never return." I motioned for the guards to escort them out and I left. I placed my hand over my stomach as it growled hungrily. It was past lunch and was too close to supper to really have anything big to eat, so I decided to go to the kitchen to see if I could find an apple or something to snack on until it was time for supper.

I ran into Anna along the way, who looked bored out of her mind. Was she talking to the paintings on the wall? She perked up when she saw me.

"Elsa!" She bounded over. "That meeting took forever!"

"I know. I turned them down again." I said. "I also told them to never return, I hate wasting time on them."

"Oh, that's good." Anna said. She started following me.

"Are you off to the kitchens? I believe you missed lunch, you must be starving."

" Yes, I'm quite hungry. I wonder what Wilma is planning for supper. Something good, I hope." I said, my mouth started to water.

"She always makes good food." Anna said, "I don't believe that she's ever made anything that wasn't good." Anna was right, Wilma was the best cook the castle had. When we made it to the kitchen Wilma was busying about, preparing for supper.

"Hello, Wilma." I said in greeting.

"Oh, my lady!" She said, wiping her hands on her apron. She bowed slightly. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I missed lunch because my meeting went over and I was hoping you'd have something I could snack on. Perhaps an apple?" I hoped.

"Of course, dear!" She plucked an apple out of the bowl and handed it to me, I took a bite immediately. It was delicious.

"So Wilma," Anna started. "What are your plans for supper?"

"Oh dear Anna, it's a secret!" Wilma said as she walked over to stand in front of the food. Anna looked disappointed at not getting a proper answer. "Don't worry, you'll love it. It's one of your favorites."

"That could be a number of things!" Anna whined. I smiled, Anna just loved food in general.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Wilma said cheerfully. Anna pouted.

"Come on Anna, lets go relax before supper." We left the kitchen and started wondering around the halls, talking about this and that. Eventually we ended up sitting on a bench in the library in front of a huge window. I didn't know how we ended up there, but it was one of my favorite spots in the castle. When I wanted to relax, sometimes I would come and find a good book, then settle down in a big comfortable chair by the window and read.

"So are you going to tell me about what happened when we were younger?" Anna asked after a couple minutes of silence. I sucked a breath in, I had completely forgotten. But a promise was a promise, after all.

"We were supposed to be sleeping." I started out. "But you came to my bed and woke me up. You said that since the sky was awake, you were awake and had to play. I tried to push you off but then you asked if I wanted to build a snowman." A smile started to creep onto my face.

"I was so excited. We would always to go the ball room and play in the snow I would create. We used to have so much fun together." The smile faded. " You said to catch you so I made a snow mound and then you started jumping off of them and I was making more and more snow mounds. You were going to fast and I told you to slow down but then I slipped on ice. You were falling so I reached out but instead of helping, I hit you in the head with ice." I paused, the image flashing through my mind.

"So then you guys took me to Pabbie?" Anna asked after a couple of minutes.

"Yes. We took you to Pabbie and he altered all your memories of us having fun with my powers and said you must not know about them. It was better that way." I said. Anna looked thoughtfully out the window.

"Is that why you started locking yourself in your room?" She wondered.

"I couldn't control it. It was the only way to keep it hidden. Mama and Papa said I would learn to master it, but I was...and still am, so afraid of it. Conceal, don't feel." I paused.

"Is this my fault?" Anna asked. I looked over at her to see if she was joking or serious. She looked serious.

"No, of course not!" I said quickly. "Why would you think something like that?"

"If I hadn't been jumping off the snow mounds, You wouldn't have hit me in the head and you probably wouldn't have grown to hate your powers. You probably would have learned to love them and you could have learned how to master them because you wouldn't have been so afraid." Anna said, sniffling. Was she going to cry?

"No, Anna. None of this was your fault. It's mine. I was the one who hit you. We were young, you didn't know any better." I said. I didn't know what to do, I wasn't used to comforting somebody who was crying so I placed my hand on her knee and patted it. "It was just an accident."

"Exactly!" Anna suddenly exclaimed.

"W-what?" I asked surprised by the outburst. What was she on about?

"It was just an accident, so why do you beat yourself up about it? We were young, neither of us knew any better." Anna said gently. I thought about that. I should have known better, I was the older one.

"Yeah. I guess." I said instead. I wanted to stop talking about it. I wanted ask her how she was doing and how she was handling the pregnancy. She hadn't really talked about it. What if she didn't want to? What if I brought it up and it angered her? I thought maybe it would just be better to let her come to me if she wanted to talk about it. I would hate to bring up something and make her uncomfortable.

We didn't talk anymore but sometime while we sat there in silence, Anna leaned over and rested her head on my shoulder. It was startling at first as I still wasn't used to human contact, but I let her continue to rest her head on my would be rude of me to brush her off and after a couple of minutes I realized, I liked it. The warmth from her body against my cold one was an interesting feeling. I never was a big fan of warming up in front of the fire on cold day or anything like that, I preferred the cold. But that was a different warmth. One that seeped into my chest and warmed my soul. How confusing.

I was suddenly startled by a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" I asked loudly, startling Anna. Apparently she had fallen asleep.

"It's Wilma! I just wanted to let you and Anna know that supper is served."

"Food?" Anna sprang up from her spot on the bench.

"Yes, food." I laughed, "lets go get some supper." Anna grabbed my hand and practically charged to the dinning room, dragging me behind her. She seemed awfully hungry. _Probably because she's eating for tw_o, I thought to myself. She was close to three month pregnant by now.

The smell that greeted us in the dinning room was to die for. I could tell right away, beef stew. One of mine and Anna's favorites. We sat down in our spots and took spoonfuls, moaning in delight at the amazing taste that danced about our taste buds.

"Know what would go good with this?" Anna asked. I thought for a moment. I couldn't think of anything that could have made it better.

"What?"

"Mustard." I looked at her with a look of disgust.

"You can't be serious." I said.

"Completely." Anna said, then turned and asked a maid to get her some mustard. When the maid returned with a jar of mustard in hand, Anna took it and I stared in horrified disgust as she poured it all over her beef strew. Then she popped a spoonful into her mouth and I watched for a disgusted look on her face, but found delight instead.

"Anna, how can that be any good?" I demanded.

"I don't know, but I've been craving mustard on everything." I realized then that it was probably because of the baby. I read about strange cravings during pregnancy, but I didn't realize they'd be starting up already.

When we were finished with supper Anna asked if I wanted to go back to the library with her and read. I was a bit surprised, I figured she would want to go out and have some fun before having to settle in for bed. I enjoyed a good read, so I agreed. I hadn't read many adventure books, but Anna passed me one that she read and really liked, so I figured I could try it out.

It turned out to be really good and I was about half way through it when I realized how late it was. I closed the book and was about to tell Anna I was going to bed when I noticed her slumped over in her chair sleeping. I smirked as I stood up and walked over to her. I picked up the book she was reading, marked the page before closing it and setting it on the table. Then I gently shook Anna awake and sent her to bed, then went to my own room for the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

I sat up and stretched, yawning I pushed the blankets back off of me and got out of bed. After putting my clothes on for the day I exited my room and started heading towards Anna's room. It was just something I started doing. I had to start going to get Anna before breakfast because she was almost never awake and the maids have given up forcing her, especially now that she was pregnant. On a few occasions I found her being sick in a bucket in her room and she always seemed so miserable. She always seemed to feel better when I was there, even when I didn't know what to say so I always sat with her until she felt better.

When I reached her room I knocked quietly on the door. I shifted nervously as I waited for a response. What if she didn't answer? I stood for a moment before knocking again but a little louder. I frowned when I heard a sound from inside that sounded like a small sob.

"Anna?" I called through the door. "Are you in there?" What would she have to be crying about this time? Anna had become very emotional and I never knew how to react. Her emotional state was actually how all the maids figured she was pregnant. Anna almost never cried so it was strange to see her have a breakdown over the silliest things, like running out of ketchup or when she went to sign some papers and her pencil broke.

"Elsa!" Anna wailed.

"What's wrong?" I demanded. It didn't sound like her normal hormonal crying. "Are you okay?"

"No!" Anna yelled. "I'm not okay!"

"I'm coming in!" I called out as I turned the door knob and pushed the door open. My heart was pounding in my ears, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Something was wrong with Anna, she wasn't okay. She said so herself, and she always pretended to fine even when she wasn't.

The sight that greeted me when I entered the room caused me to stop mid step. Anna was practically naked, standing in just her underclothes, in front of her mirror. I looked at her reflection and noticed how red and puffy her eyes were. She'd been crying for awhile, I could tell. But I couldn't see anything wrong. There didn't seem to be any injuries and other than her crying, she didn't seem to be ill.

"Anna, you're practically naked." I said as I looked away from her and shut the door behind me. I would have hated to have a maid walk by and look in to see her standing there in her underclothes.

"Elsa! Look at me!" She exclaimed, I could feel my cheeks heating up.

"Maybe you should put some clothes on first." I said, still not looking at her. I got a weird feeling in my stomach, kind of like having butterflies. The sob that came out of Anna caused me to look up anyway. She was standing there with her hands on her stomach, she looked up at me with a strange look on her face. I couldn't quite tell what it was,

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"I'm getting fat!" Anna exclaimed. "Look at me!" I glanced down at her stomach. It's true that she started showing a couple of weeks ago, but she was still as thin as a twig. Anna could hardly be called fat.

"You're not getting fat." I said, "What did you expect to happen during pregnancy?"

"I knew it was going to happen, but I still wasn't ready for it." Anna said, dropping to the floor and covered her face with her hands. "I'm so ugly now!" My heart thudded and I frowned as I knelt down in front of her.

"Anna," I started. "You are far from ugly. You're the most beautiful women around." She peeked out from her fingers to look at me. I could see her face turning red from what showed between the cracks between her fingers. What was happening? Why was her face turning red? Was she okay?

"You think so?" She asked, removing her hands completely.

"Of course." I said. "I would not have said it if it wasn't true."

"You think I'm beautiful?" She wondered. I hesitated. The butterflies were making an appearance again, why did I feel so weird? It wasn't like I hadn't told her that before. I told her during coronation that she was beautiful.

"Yes." I said after a moment. I could feel my face heating up.

"Even though I'm fat?" She pressed.

"You're not fat." I stated. I stood up and walked to her closet to get a dress for her to wear. After I picked one out I walked out to see her standing in front of the mirror again, caressing her belly. A slight smile pulled at my lips.

"Here, put this on." I threw the dress at her. She caught it and quickly slipped into it, then threw her hair up. She looked at me like she wanted to say something.

"I'm having a baby." She said as if realizing it for the first time.

"Yes you are." I said, confused. It's been around four months now, she was just realizing it?

"There's a baby growing in there." Anna said thoughtfully. "It's alive."

"Uh, Yes. It is alive." I said, searching for some hint of what she was thinking. Suddenly she frowned.

"It's Hans'." She said, looking at the ground. Was that anger I saw on her face? I didn't say anything because I didn't know what to say. Only Anna and Hans was there for the creation of the baby.

"Why?" She asked sounding broken.

"Why what?"

"Why did this have to happen? Why did I have to get pregnant with Hans' baby?" She sat down on her bed and looked at her lap. I didn't know what to say so I sat down next to her. Careful not to hurt her, I gently placed my arm around her shoulders.

"You're cold." She said quietly. I pulled my arm back quickly.

"Sorry!"

"No!" Anna said scooting closer so she was almost right up against me. "I like it." I slowly put my arm around her again, she leaned in and rested her head on my shoulder. My heart started racing. What was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to say something? Was I supposed to be doing anything?

"Relax." Anna said as if hearing my internal struggle. "It's just me. You don't have to be so tense all the time." I tried to relax but I just couldn't. After a couple of minutes Anna sat up straighter.

"Thanks for being here." She said. I looked down for a minute, then looked at her. All I could do was nod. She then leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

"I'm going to go get breakfast, you should join me." She said as she stood up and practically bounced out the door. I touched the spot that she kissed, which was dangerously close to the corner of my mouth, and frowned. I wasn't sure what was going on any more, but I thought it was okay. I got off the bed and exited the room only to trip over Olaf in the hall.

"Oh! Olaf, I'm sorry." I said and I bent down to pick up his head. I placed it onto his body and smiled fondly at him.

"Elsa!" Olaf exclaimed, running up to hug me. I hugged him back. Hugging him was fine, I could hardly freeze him more than he already was, and If I did manage to freeze him more it probably wouldn't hurt him as he was made of snow.

"What are you up to these days?" I asked him. He grinned up at me and I smiled. Next to Anna, I loved Olaf more than anything. He was like my own little child, my own creation of snow. Looking at him, he symbolized hope for me. My powers were robust and could destroy a whole city, but Olaf proved that they could do wonderful things. He was alive and filled with so much love, hope and wonder.

"I've been playing with Marshmallow a lot but I haven't seen Sven and Kristoff in awhile, where are they?"

"They're delivering ice elsewhere and sometimes that can be a long trip. Sometimes days or weeks. I'm sure they'll be back any day now." I said.

"Oh." he said looking down. " I haven't seen Anna in awhile either, where's she been?"

"She's been relaxing and taking care of herself." I said.

"She can't come out with us anymore?" Olaf asked looking sad.

"She can, she just has to be careful." At Olaf's confused look I explained. "She's pregnant and needs to be careful so the baby doesn't get hurt." I wasn't sure if I should have told but everybody was starting to find out anyway, it wasn't going to be easy to hide her belly once it got much bigger. Olaf continued to look confused for a moment, then looked very excited.

"She's going to have a baby?" Olaf asked, "That's wonderful!" I thought for a moment.

"Yes, it is. Isn't it?" I hadn't really thought about how I felt about the baby itself, I only thought about Hans and how much I hated him and the fact that he got my sister pregnant. But there was a life growing inside of Anna, and it was precious. My stomach growled so I said goodbye to Olaf and went to breakfast.

"What took you so long?" Anna asked after I sat down. I noticed that she hadn't touched the food yet, she had waited.

"I ran into Olaf, you could have started without me." I responded.

"You always wait for me though." Anna said with a shrug of her shoulders. "How's Olaf doing?" Anna asked, digging into the food on her plate and I noticed that it was covered with Ketchup. I shuddered.

"I think he misses you." I said. "I told him you were pregnant, I hope that's okay." Anna just stared at me for a minute and I got nervous. Maybe it wasn't okay that I told him. But all the maids knew and I'm sure it's spread to the villagers as well by now.

"How did he respond?" Anna wondered, shoving some toast into her mouth.

"He seems to be very excited." Then I added, "You should play with him sometime. Don't exert yourself, but maybe spend some time with him." Anna nodded.

"I guess it has been while. Maybe that's what I'll do today. Do you want to join us?"

"No thank you, I'd love to but I've got paper work to fill out. As the queen I have to make sure that everything in Arendelle is running smoothly." I said, almost chuckling at the look of boredom on Anna's face. " I've been thinking...I should learn how to protect myself and my kingdom with something other than my powers." Anna perked up.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Yes, but I'm not sure how yet."

"Archery." She breathed. " I bet you'd be amazing at archery." I thought about that. I don't know if I would be very good at it, but it would sure be fun. I would give it a try.

"So who will you have teach you?" Anna asked, looking thoughtful. I hadn't thought of that. When my parents reduced the staff, that included most of the castle security. They kept enough to keep the castle safe in case of an attack, but the rest was sent away.

"I don't think we have anybody who specializes in archery." Anna said. "Do we?" I didn't think so, but there had to be someone who knew.

"I'll talk to the captain of the guard. There has got to be somebody around here that knows archery well enough." I said. "If not, I guess I'll figure it out on my own."

"I could help!" Anna pipes up. I didn't really like that idea, I could somehow hurt her. Images of accidentally shooting Anna with an arrow flashed through my mind and I shook my head.

"Too dangerous." I said shaking my head. Anna was about to protest so I added, "What about the baby? You don't want to strain yourself too much." Anna looked thoughtful after a moment.

"After I have the baby, then?"

"We will see." I said. I still wanted to say no, but I didn't have any other excuses at the time.

"You know, I can make decisions for myself." Anna said, not looking as defiant as she sounded. Of course, she was right. She was old enough and could make decisions for herself. Something told me that she wouldn't really fight me though.

"I know." was all I said. Anna just shrugged as she put the last spoonful of eggs into her mouth. I hadn't finished my food but I wasn't really hungry anymore, so I pushed the plate away. I wondered if I should just jump into paperwork right away, or If I should go talk to the captain of the guard.

"I think I'm going to go find the captain of the guard and talk to him before starting my paperwork." I told Anna. "What do you plan to do?"

"I think I should go find Olaf." Anna said, " With only Marshmallow to be with, I imagine he's getting lonely. Marshmallow is fun to be around and all, but he can get kind of grumpy." I smiled. I hardly saw Marshmallow much, and I figured maybe I should take time from my day once in awhile to visit him.

"Sounds like a plan." I said. "See you later tonight?"

"Of course!" Anna grinned happily. I nodded in acknowledgment and stood, then strode out of the room. I nodded at the maids and servants as I left.

I found the captain of the guard in where the weapons were kept, he seemed to be sharpening and already sharp sword. I cleared my throat to talk but when he noticed me standing there he dropped the sword, stood up from his chair, and bowed.

"I apologize, your majesty." He said. " I didn't see you standing there." I felt my cheeks redden. I knew people were supposed to bow to me because I was queen, but it made me uncomfortable. I didn't really like being called 'your majesty' either but I put up with it because when I tried to tell people to call me 'Elsa' they would have a fit and call me your majesty anyway.

"Quite alright," I said, then realized I'd known of the man all my life and I couldn't place his name. "Captain." I finished.

"Please, call me Henrik" he said, straightening himself. "What can I do for you?" I felt nervous all of a sudden. Normally, women didn't care about learning to fight. Especially not the queen. I suddenly realized how silly it would seem. What would he say? Did we even have the things we needed for archery? I was still pretty new at being queen and most of the stuff I dealt with didn't have much to do with our guards. I glanced around the armory and spotted some bows hanging on the wall. That was a good sign.

"Well, Henrik..." I paused, he was looking at me with confusion on his face, he probably was wondering what the queen was doing in the armory. "I want to learn how to shoot arrows with a bow." He stared at me with a blank expression on his face.

"Excuse me?" He asked for a moment.

"I want to learn how to use a bow." I repeated. A smile formed on his face and I wasn't sure if he was smiling because he thought it was a ludicrous idea, or if he thought it was a good one. It took him a moment to respond.

"An odd request." He said. "But I would be happy to teach you." I released the breath I didn't know I was holding. He was going to teach me archery and I couldn't wait to get started. Finally, something other than meetings and paperwork.

"When can we start?" I asked, a grin forming uncharacteristically on my face.

"Whenever you desire." Henrik said.

"Could we start right now? Only for a little while as I have paperwork to do." I felt hope blossom in my chest.

"Of course." He said with a nod. I watched him turn to look at the bows hanging on the wall. He stood and stared at them, then looked back at me, back at the bows and then picked one off the wall.

"Here, hold this like you were going to shoot it." He said as he handed it to me. I took the bow and held it out in front of my body and pulled the string. It was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I managed to pull it all the way back. "Alright, let it go." So I let it go and the string made a snap. I lowered the bow and looked at Henrik. He was smiling.

"I see potential. Shall we go out and try with some arrows?" I nodded enthusiastically. He grabbed some arrows. I followed him as he led me outside and through a gate to where the targets stood. He shot a couple of arrows to show me how it's done, both of them hitting dead center. Then he told me to try. The first arrow that I shot missed the target completely. I stared at where it stuck in the ground, feet from where it should have hit, and wondered if I made the right choice.

"Don't worry, your majesty." He said. "Nobody ever hits the target on the first try. It's going to take quite awhile before you start hitting the center. It's going to take a lot of practice." I nodded and after a couple hours I reluctantly handed the bow back to Henrik. My arm was sore and I needed to start my paperwork. But at least I was hitting the target towards the end of the session.

"Thank you so much for showing me." I said.

"My pleasure, your majesty." Henrik said as he bowed. I took my leave.

I wasn't getting very much paper work done as I stared at the window. I was level with the tree tops and I noticed the leaves were turning such pretty colors now that it was fall. The trees were full of reds, yellows, oranges, and greens. The view from my window was absolutely stunning. I shook my head and turned back to the papers on my desk.

I'd been at it for hours, stopping once for lunch and once for supper. I was finally reaching the end of the stack and I just wanted to be done. So of course, I was procrastinating. I knew that the sooner that I finished it, the sooner I could relax so I really tried to concentrate and finish it.

When I finally signed the last paper, I set it aside and looked at the stack. The paperwork had to do with anything from signing peace treaties to trading agreements. I stretched and stood from my chair. It felt like it had been a long day. I wondered what Anna was up to.

I left my office and found Anna in her room, sitting at her desk. I couldn't tell what she was doing from where I stood so I knocked on the open door and she turned to look at me, then her face cracked open into a grin.

"Elsa!" Anna exclaimed, "Did you finally finish your paperwork?"

"Yes, I finished it finally." I said. I pulled up a chair next to her desk. I looked down at what she was doing and saw a painting that she was working on. It was a dragon that was blowing fire from it's mouth. The painting was really well done and I realized I didn't know she liked to paint. But what did I really know about Anna?

"I didn't know you liked to paint." I said, looking the painting over again.

"I didn't know either." Anna admitted. " I used to get tired of talking to the paintings and suddenly today I realized, I could probably paint my own." She shrugged.

"It's wonderful." I said and looked into her eyes. "It seems that you've got a talent for it." Anna beamed.

"Thank you!" she said as she set the paint brush down. "So did you talk to the captain of the guard?"

"Yes, I even had my first lesson." I told her. "Henrik is a good teacher but I don't think I'm very good."

"Well of course not." Anna said. "You can't expect to good at it right away"

"I know." I said. Suddenly I remembered something. Tomorrow was my day off. Somehow I managed to convince everybody to let me have a day off and even leave the castle for the day. "Do you want to go to the village tomorrow?" I asked Anna.

"What do you mean?" She asked in confusion. I don't blame her, I almost never had a day off.

"I have the day off tomorrow." I said. " I thought maybe we could sleep in and then go to the village and walk around.

"I'd really like that!" Anna said joyfully.

"Good." I responded. " I think I'll head off to bed now, it's been a long day." I stood up and then hesitated. Then I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead like she sometimes did to me. It seemed to make her happy so I told her good night and left to go to my own room.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A sound startled me awake but I couldn't tell what it was. It was still dark out when I opened my eyes and when I looked at my clock I noticed it was only two in the morning. I yawned and rolled over, closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep. As I was drifting off to sleep I heard it again. I held my breath so I could hear it better and fear ripped through me. There was somebody in my room, I could hear them breathing. Who would dare enter my room in the middle of the night without my permission. I was too afraid to look. What if it was somebody that was waiting to murder me?

After a couple of minutes of listening I could tell the breathing was coming from the other side of the room. That meant I could make a quick run for the door if I needed. Slowly I pulled the blanket away from my face and peeked over it. I couldn't see anybody standing there but I knew I wasn't imagining it. I sat up and squinted. It was hard to see in the dark but my eyes finally landed on the arm chair across the room by the window. There was somebody curled up on it. Curious.

I got out of bed and slowly made my way to whoever was sleeping in my chair and it took my eyes a minute to adjust. My heart stopped thudding and the fear left when I noticed it was just Anna. I sighed in relief, then frowned. Why was Anna sleeping in my armchair and not in her own bed? I wasn't sure, should I wake her up or let her sleep? It looked like she was shivering so I turned back to my bed and pulled off one of the blankets. I carefully tried to drape it over her without waking her, but when I looked at her face her eyes were open and she was looking at me.

"Hey." I said quietly. "You looked cold." She nodded, looking tired.

"Just out of curiosity, why are you sleeping in my arm chair and not your own bed?" I asked. She was silent for a moment.

"I had a nightmare." Anna said. "I wanted to ask you if I could sleep with you like I used to do when we were kids, but I'm not a kid anymore so I chose the armchair. Sorry if you don't want me here, I can go." She stood up and started going towards the door.

"Wait," I stopped her. "Uh. If you want you can sleep with me. Would it make you feel better?"

"I would feel safer." Anna said with a nod. " But I understand if you don't want me to."

"Nonsense." I said. "Get into bed." Anna smiled and walked over to my bed and crawled in one side and I got in the other. "Do you want to talk about it?" Anna buried her face in the pillow.

"It was Hans." Anna said. "I just...during coronation...I don't know...I think... Oh I don't know what to say!" She sounded frustrated. I thought for a moment. She still hadn't really talked about what happened between her and Hans and it seemed to be bothering her. I remember how it made me feel better when Anna talked to me about what was bothering me.

"Maybe we could talk about what happened between you two." I said. I didn't really want all the details, but I would listen to what she had to say.

"We snuck away and I think one of the servants saw us, but he didn't go looking for us." Anna said. "He started kissing me and it was fine. I thought I loved him and he loved me. But then he started trying to...Feel me...through my clothes. I pushed his hands away but he kept coming back and when I asked what he was doing he told me that's what people did when they were in love." She went silent for a minute. "I believed him." I felt my heart squeeze.

"Then he started to take my dress off and I told him to stop." Anna continued. "Nobody had ever seen me naked and I was nervous. He just repeated that's what people did when they loved each other. I still was hesitant, but he just told me he loved me so much that he didn't want to wait anymore."

"Oh, Anna." I said sadly. I had turned to look at her when she started talking. I reached out and brushed a stray hair from her face. She looked at me with anger in her eyes and for a moment, I thought it was directed at me.

"It hurt." She said. " I told him it hurt and he just said that it always hurts the first time. He just kept saying he loved me. I thought I loved him so I just let him do it. He distracted me from the pain by kissing my neck and it kind of helped and I think I might have started enjoying it after a bit... But now I'm pregnant!" I felt my heart rate pick up and my blood felt like it was boiling. To me, it sounded like he forced her into it. She tried to tell him no, and he used her inexperience and loneliness against her.

"I'm sorry, Elsa." Anna said, pulling me away from my thoughts. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you." It took me a minute to realize what she was talking about until I realized I was freezing the blanket.

"No, I asked you to tell me." I said as I concentrated on thawing the blanket. "I'm just upset with Hans."

"Why?" Anna asked. "I was the one who should have gotten him to stop. I shouldn't have been so stupid."

"No." I said sharply. "You told him to stop and he should have stopped the first time you said it." Anna didn't say anything for a long time and I thought she had fallen asleep at first, but her eyes were still open.

"Was that what your nightmare was about?" I asked. "Him raping you?"

"It wasn't rape." Anna said. "I let him do it."

"He forced you." I argued. "He should have stopped when you said, not convince you that's what you should do."

"Okay." She said quietly, I got the feeling she didn't believe me.

"Do you feel better now that you talked about it?" I asked.

"Actually, I do." Anna said. " It still doesn't change what happened, but it still feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest."

"Good." I said. I felt guilty. It looked like I had it all wrong. Here I thought Anna wanted it. I thought she wanted it and she didn't truly. I could see how she would have gotten confused. She had no contact to people outside of the maids and servants for so long, it would be easy to be confused about love. I felt horrible. I should have asked Anna to talk about it sooner.

"Maybe we should get some sleep now." I suggested. "When we get up we will go explore the village." Anna nodded and we both drifted off.

* * *

"Elsa! Elsa!" I heard as somebody shook me. I cracked my eye open and then closed it when I saw that it was just Anna. "Elsa wake up! You're sleeping the day away."

I opened my eye and looked at the clock. It was nine in the morning and I sat up quickly. I couldn't believe I slept so long. That didn't normally happen, but I felt well rested.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"I only just woke up now as well." Anna said. "I'm going to go get ready for breakfast, I'll see you in there!" And then she was gone out the door in the blink of an eye. I sat in bed for a minute and then groaned. Why couldn't I just stay in bed all day? Then I remembered that we were going to take a trip through the village and excitement rose in my chest. I couldn't remember the last time I took a trip through the village.

I quickly got out of bed and changed into my dress, I put my hair up as I walked to the dinning room. Anna was already there, practically bouncing in her seat. How did she get ready so fast? She would have had to go to her room to change and put her hair up. I shook my head with a smile. It looked like somebody was excited.

"Somebody seems in a hurry." I mentioned as I sat down. She barely waited for me to be seated before she started piling food on her plate and shoving it in her mouth.

"No time to lose!" She said with her mouth full. " Who knows when they'll let you leave the castle again!" I chuckled.

"We have all day, Anna." I said. "Please don't choke on your food."

Breakfast went rather quickly, even for me. I was having a hard time containing my excitement and just wanted to get out and enjoy the sun. When we were finished eating, Anna and I took our leave. The castle staff had a hard time letting us leave and tried to talk us out of it, saying that something could happen to us in the village. Nothing was going to happen to us in the village, I was sure, but the staff wasn't convinced. It was Greta that got them to leave us alone.

"She spent thirteen years in her room, you should be happy that she wants to leave the castle to visit the village." I heard Greta scold them. I smirked and soon we were walking around and exploring the village. I didn't really know what I was expecting, but it was sure busy! All kinds of people were rushing around, doing their daily business. Kids were running around chasing each other and playing around. One little boy who was probably about five or six wasn't paying attention to where he was running and ran right into my leg.

He fell back onto the ground and looked up at me, stunned for a moment. I knelt down in front of him and helped him up.

"Sorry, ma'am." He said shyly, wringing his hands.

"That's alright." I said trying to make eye contact with him. "What's your name?"

"Simen." The boy said, looking at the ground as he dug his foot into the dirt. "Who are you?"

"I'm Elsa." I told him. I quickly glanced up at Anna. "And this is Anna." Anna knelt down next to me and extended her hand towards Simen to shake.

"Pleasure to meet you." She said. He looked at her and carefully shaking Anna's hand, his mouth hanging open in awe.

"You're pretty." Simen said. Anna opened her mouth to say something but suddenly a woman's shrill voice sounded from somewhere behind us and the boy nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Simen!" The woman yelled, I stood up and looked. She looked upset or worried, I couldn't tell which. "Where are-?" She spotted us and strode over.

"I thought I told you not to go running off like that!" She scolded as she grabbed his hand.

"Sorry mama!" Simen said.

"I hope he didn't cause any trouble." The woman said, then her eyes widened as she looked at me more closely. Her mouth fell open and she shuddered for a moment, trying to talk through her nervousness.

"I'm sorry, your majesty!" She said after a moment. "I didn't realize!" I smiled at her.

"It's quite alright." I told her. "He was no trouble at all." She looked relieved.

"Good. We should go, please excuse us." She said with a bow, then pulled Simen along behind her. As they were walking away he turned, grinned at us, and waved. I waved back and I think Anna winked at him, which seemed to make his day.

"I think he's taken a liking to you." I told her, she just laughed.

* * *

As the day went on I could tell that the villagers weren't used to us being in town. We got many stares and I heard whispers such as, "Is that the queen and princess?" and "What's the queen doing out of the castle? She never leaves." None of the comments seemed bad, everybody was just surprised. I even heard a couple of, "Wow, she's more beautiful than I imagined." I was sure they were talking about Anna, but Anna thought they were talking about me.

Towards the end of the day we decided to stop by the bakery when we were passing through to get some bread and some cookies. The young girl at the counter was so surprised to see us that she fainted on the spot. When we got her to come to, she took one look at the both of us and called for her dad.

"Dad! Dad come quick!" The girl called out. She stood up and went to the door leading to the back of the store. "Dad!"

"What is it?" He called grumpily. After a moment he came through the door way but stopped when he saw us. "Oh my goodness! Why didn't you say something?" He bowed down, looked sideways at the girl and pulled her down into a bow. "Where are your manners?"

"Sorry dad." She said. They straightened, still looking surprised.

"I apologize for my daughters rudeness." He said.

"We've been getting that reaction all day." Anna snorted a laugh.

"Well, it's not every day you see the queen and princess in town." The man said. "It's a wonderful surprise. Can we help you with anything?"

"We were just wondering if we could get some bread and maybe cookies if you've got them." I said.

"Of course, you majesty." The man said, then gave his daughter a look. She took that as cue to start getting things ready and she rushed around getting the bread and cookies. When we tried to pay he wouldn't take it.

"I couldn't accept that, my queen." He said.

"Nonsense." I said, trying to hand him the money. " I can't just take the bread and cookies without paying, what kind of person would I be?" When he still wouldn't take the money from me I placed it on the counter, thanked him for his service and we left. We were going to go eat and watch the sunset when we spotted a tree with apples on it.

"I bet those apples would be good." Anna said. I walked around the tree, looking for possible apples that were close enough to pick.

"They're all too high." I said apologetically.

"Oh, I'll just have to climb up and get some then." Anna said. She made a move to start climbing the tree and I stopped her.

"You can't climb that tree, what if you fall down?" I asked, pulling her back. "You could hurt the baby." Seeing Anna's disappointment, I was about to try to attempt to climb the tree myself even though I'd never done it before, but a voice sounded from behind us.

"I bet I could help." I turned around to see who it was.

"Kristoff!" Anna yelled, running up to him she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're back! How was your trip?"

"It went fine, just got back actually." He said as he pulled away. "I see you were admiring those apples. Do you want me to get some for you guys?"

"Oh, yes please!" Anna said excited. Kristoff nodded and the next thing I knew he was up in the tree, dropping apples all over the ground. When he thought there was a sufficient amount of apples on the ground, he climbed back down.

"There you guys are."

"Thanks Kristoff!" Anna said happily. She picked one off the ground and bit into it. "Delicious."

"Well, I best be off." Kristoff said. "Will I see you tomorrow?" Anna nodded enthusiastically, her mouth too full of apple to respond. After Kristoff left I turned to look at the ocean. The sun was already starting to set, I noticed. It was always so beautiful, the sky turning into all shades of orange and red. The way the colors bounced off of the ocean and sparkled was just magnificent.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Anna asked. "I think this is the perfect spot to watch it, if you still want to."

"Yes, I still want to." I responded. We sat down and began to eat our bread. Fresh bread was always the best and the cookies were even better, I realized. Chocolate chip was my favorite, and by the way Anna was gobbling them down as fast as she could, I guessed they were her favorite too.

"This was a wonderful day." I said quietly. "I'm going to have to do this more often. Everybody in town is so nice and friendly. Maybe after awhile they would all stop being so flustered to see me."

"Yes, we should do this more often." Anna said, biting into another apple. I felt kind of bad. Anna left the castle occasionally, but as far as I knew she didn't go very far. She normally just played outside with Olaf and Marshmallow.

"You know, you can go to town whenever you like. Just because I have other things that need my attention, doesn't mean you have to be all cooped up." I said.

"Yeah, but it's not the same." Anna said. "It's better when you're with. I hardly ever see you outside of meetings and paperwork. I never realized how much work being queen would be."

"Yes, it is a lot of work." I said. "It just makes days like today, so much more special. I can appreciate them more." Anna reached over and patted my arm, then laid down on the ground. Sighing, I did the same. It felt so good to have a day just to relax and spend time with Anna. Tomorrow I would have to go back to being queen, but now I was just going to sit back and enjoy the quiet sounds of the villagers going about their evening business and the crickets and frogs .


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

I sat in my chair and tried to follow what was being said during the meeting that I was unfortunate enough to participate in. Meetings were generally boring, but this one seemed to be the most boring meeting I'd ever been to. Normally I could at least pay attention enough to know what was going on but I'd been sitting there for hours and I still wouldn't have been able to tell you what was being said. I tried to be polite and sit straight and proper like a queen should, but I didn't seem to have the energy for that and I sat with my elbow on the table on the table and my face resting on my hand.

I just didn't feel like sitting inside at a meeting, was that so bad? What I really wanted to do was go to the village. I wanted to go see all the people, see how things were going. I wanted to spend time with Anna and see the sunset again. I bet the sunrises would be great too, Maybe we could go early in the morning sometime? I smiled, that would be great. I'd have to talk to Anna about it.

"Uh, your highness?" I snapped back to reality. I got a feeling I missed something important.

"E-Excuse me?" I sat up straighter, trying to look like I had been paying attention. "I didn't quite catch that."

"Uh, we just asked what your thoughts were." The Head of the Council said, looking disapprovingly at my lack of attention. I felt my face go red. Why wasn't I able to pay attention when it mattered? It was so unlike me!

"Oh. On what was it, again?" He took a deep breath like he was trying to hold his frustration in. I didn't blame him. What kind of queen was I? Part of me missed when Mama and Papa were here and they would take care of everything. Part of me just wasn't ready to spend my time in meetings and in my office doing paperwork. Now that I had my freedom back for the most part, I wanted to go out and do things.

"We wanted to know if you would be willing to be there when the next shipment of apples go out." The Head of the Council said. "We think it would be good for you to be there to sign the papers and make sure everything's okay before they get shipped out. We thought you might like getting out and participating in more things." I thought about that for a minute, it was almost like he'd read my mind.

"Yes, I would like that." I said. Other than signing paperwork and attending meetings, I didn't do much involving the kingdom. "What does that involve, exactly?" The council members all smiled.

"You'll just need to go down to the Fjord and sign some papers. Basically, just go and oversee everything and make sure it all goes well." The Head of the Council said. I nodded. That sounded easy enough.

"When is it to take place?" I wondered. Maybe Anna and I could go walking around the village again after the shipment was sent off.

"Friday after lunch." He said.

"Do I have any other engagements Friday?" I asked. He pulled a small book from his pocket and flipped through it, settling on a page a moment later.

"No," He said squinting slightly as he read. "You do not have any other engagements on Friday."

"Good, put a note in there not to schedule anything." I told him smiling, "After I go to the Fjord to see the shipment off, I would like to spend the rest of the day with Anna." The Head of the Council nodded, scribbling in the book before snapping it closed and putting it back into his pocket. They let me go after that, and I had to go meet Henrik for some archery. Some practice would be good, then it would be time for supper and I figured I could talk to Anna then to see what she thought about going to the village on Friday. I really doubted that she would say no.

I found Henrik in the archery range already waiting for me. I could see that he'd been shooting, as there were arrows already stuck in the targets, all of them in the center somewhere. It was impressive and I hoped to be that good someday.

"I apologize for being late." I said, looking at the ground.

"Not a problem, Queen Elsa." He said with a slight bow. "Would you like to get started?"

"Yes, please!" I said smiling. Henrik walked over to the targets and began pulling the arrows out. After he collected them all, he walked over to me and handed them over along with the bow. I knocked my first arrow, pulled it up in aim and took a deep breath. After letting it out, I let go of the arrow and watched it fly. I barely hit the target and I was slightly disappointed.

"Please don't worry about it, your majesty." Henrik said, noticing the look on my face. "You're going to get better. It's only your second day, after all."

"I guess you're right, aren't you?" I said with a little shake of my head. It was silly of me to be upset, it would take time. I shot another arrow and watched as it hit the target a little closer to the center than the first one did. I just wanted to hit the center at least once, was that too much to ask? _The target isn't even that far away, _I thought in dissatisfaction as the next arrow missed the target all together.

After I shot my last arrow, I stood there and stared at the arrows sticking out of the target. None of them made it to the center circle, one of the arrows made it kind of close, sitting at about four or five inches away from it.

"Good job." Henrik said. "Now you can go retrieve the arrows and start again." I walked over to the target and pulled the arrows and came back for more shooting. After a couple hours of perpetual shooting, the sun was starting to set, and it was probably time for supper.

"I think we've had enough for today." Henrik said. " I can take your bow if you want to go have supper." He reached for the bow but I ignored him. I spent hours shooting arrows and still had yet to hit the center. Before I realized what I was doing, ice started growing in my hand. It started out looking like a pole but it kept growing until it was a finely crafted arrow. I aimed the arrow made of ice and shot it.

I blinked and stared at my arrow. It landed in the center. That didn't seem right, I hadn't hit the center at all that day, why now? I rubbed my eyes and looked, it was still in the center. I hadn't imagined it. I chanced a glance at Henrik and the look on his face reminded me of what I had just done. I made an arrow of ice and shot it, hitting dead center. He was probably completely afraid of me. The arrow looked lethal, with a razor sharp point. It was much sharper than the arrows I had been practicing with. Looking at the arrow, I could tell that it went almost all the way through the target. I cringed and started to back away.

"Oh, Henrik. I'm really sorry." I tried to say. "I wasn't thinking. I just did it."

"You hit the center." He said as he stared at the target in wonder. "You just...do it again." I stared at him. I must not have heard him right, it almost sounded like he wanted me to do it again.

"Uh, if you don't mind, that is." He added when he saw my confusion. "I just want to see it again and then you can go." _What could it hurt, _I wondered after a moment of thought. What if I missed and hit somebody with it though? There was nobody around except Henrik, I remembered.

"Only if you stand behind me." I told him. I couldn't hit him if he was behind me. He agreed, so I formed another arrow out of ice and quickly shot it. I smiled as it hit center, shattering the other arrow and took it's place.

"That's amazing!" Henrik said, making my smile grow. "We can explore that more tomorrow. I'm sure you must be hungry by now."

"Yes, and sore." I added with a small laugh, I flexed my arms. "Thank you, Henrik. I'll see you tomorrow."

When I turned to go into the castle, I spotted Anna leaning against a tree watching me. I wondered how long she had been standing there watching. What did she think of my ice arrows? She didn't look upset, scared, or disgusted.

"How long have you been watching?" I asked when I reached her.

"Just a couple minutes." She said. "You were late for supper so I came out to see what was keeping you."

"I'm sorry, Anna." I responded. "You could have started supper without me." We started making our way towards the castle.

"I'm glad I came out, that was so cool!" Anna said excitedly. "The way you just made those arrows and hit the center, it was so awesome!" She was practically skipping.

"It wasn't really that impressive." I said. "I didn't even think about it when I did it. I did it out of frustration."

"What do you mean?" Anna wondered.

"I was frustrated because I couldn't hit the center." I told her. " So without thinking, I made an arrow out of ice and shot it. It probably only hit the center because I made the arrow with my powers."

"That's still really cool." Anna said. I shook my head with a small smile on my lips. Anna was always so optimistic, I loved that about her.

When we made it to the dinning room we took our spots and began dishing up. I suddenly remembered about the shipment on Friday.

"Do you have anything planned on Friday?" I asked as we began eating the delicious food.

"I don't think so." Anna said, a thoughtful look on her face. "Why?"

"Well, the Council wants me to oversee a shipment of apples at the fjord on Friday and I was wondering if you wanted to go walking around town again afterwards." I said. "I thought maybe we could go back to the bakery and walk around, maybe watch the sunset again."

"That sounds wonderful!" Anna said excitedly. "I can't wait!" I tried to hold back my smile of excitement but I didn't do a very good job. Maybe this time it wouldn't be such a surprise to the villagers.

We ate the rest of the meal in silence. I watched Anna out of the corner of my eye. Anna always ate so quickly, like somebody was going to reach out and take it or it was going to just disappear. Sometimes she gripped the spoon or fork in a fist, instead of the proper way. When I was younger, proper eating etiquette was drilled into me as well as everything else I would need to know to be the queen. I wondered why they didn't drill it into Anna as well. She was just a princess, but it still would have been in their best interest to teach her.

I didn't mind when she used the wrong silverware and held it different, but I would have hated for someone to say something to her if we ever had special visitors staying in the castle. I wasn't sure if I should ever say anything, so I normally kept my mouth shut. What did it matter? We almost never had visitors anyway.

"Maybe you should slow down a little." I said when she almost choked on her food. "It's not good for digestion." Anna suddenly looked angry.

"Sorry."She snapped. I noticed she switched to holding the fork properly and sat up straighter, it was almost like she read my mind. Though, that wasn't what I meant. I just didn't want her to choke.

"No, It's just fine." I said cautiously. "I just want to make sure you're okay. I don't want you to choke or have a stomach ache later because you ate too fast."

"Oh." Anna said, the look of anger melted into despair.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's just... I'm about as graceful as a...as a bear tripping down the stairs!" Tears filled her eyes and she practically wailed. The image of Anna being a bear, tripping down the stairs brought a small smile to my face. I couldn't help it.

"That's not true!" I said, placing my hand over my mouth to hide the smile.

"It is and you know it!" Anna said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. "I don't make a very good princess!"

"Yes you do." I said with a frown. "Why do you say that? Did somebody say something to you about it?"

"No." Anna said. "It's just true though."

"Well, I think you make a perfect princess." I said. "You brighten the whole kingdom with your smile and positive attitude." Anna stopped and looked at me.

"You mean it?" She asked, a smile forming on her lips.

"I would not have said it if it were not true." I said.

"Thank you." Anna said quietly. "Sorry, my emotions are getting the best of me. One minute I'm happy, the next I'm angry or sad or just upset."

"Don't worry about it, Anna." I reassured her. "It's because you're pregnant. Your hormones are all over the place. It will pass once you have the baby."

"I hope so." She said as she picked up her fork again. "It hasn't even been that long of having mood swings, but it feels like forever. I'm getting tired of it, but at least I don't have morning sickness much anymore."

"Yes, that's good." I said to her. She always seemed so miserable, hunched over a bucket being sick. Of course, nobody liked throwing up, but it seemed to happen to her everyday. Sometimes more than once each day, and the time of day didn't seem to matter. I was glad that it seemed to be tapering off.

"I'm excited for Friday." Anna said as we finished our meal. "To be honest, I didn't think we would be able to have another day like that again so soon. I thought it would be awhile."

"Me too." I said with a smile. "I was surprised when they asked if I wanted to do it. I told them not to schedule anything else on Friday so I could have the rest of the day with you."

"Wow, you really did that?" Anna wondered.

"Of course, I always like spending time with you when I can." I said, and noticed the blush on Anna's face.

"You like spending time with me?" She asked.

"Of course, you're my sister." I responded.

"I like spending time with you too!" Anna said. She stood up from her chair and leaned over me. I held my breath as she leaned down closer and kissed me on the cheek.

"I'm going to go paint in my room, you're welcome to come keep me company if you want." Anna said, then skipped out of the room. I touched the spot on my cheek that she kissed, feeling it, and felt myself blush. I could still feel her soft lips there and I got a weird feeling in my stomach. I decided that it was probably best to ignore it so with a smile I got up from my chair and went to go join Anna.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Friday had finally come but the morning seemed to just drag on and on. I didn't have anything to do other than seeing the apples off, so I wasn't sure what to do with my time this morning. Anna and I had breakfast and once we finished, we sat there and talked about what we were going to do in the village. Anna was so excited, she rambled on and on about it and the people we would see.

"What are you going to do with your morning?" Anna asked quietly after we finished talking about the village. Anna had a look on her face, much like disappointment. " You don't have to be to the fjord until after lunch, right?"

"That's correct." I told her. The look of disappointment was still there and I was confused.

"What's wrong?" I asked. She looked up at me, the disappointment vanishing from her face. She smiled, but it didn't meet her eyes. She was putting up a mask.

"Nothing." Anna said.

"No, it's not nothing." I responded. " You looked disappointed."

"I wasn't." Anna said defiantly.

"Don't lie, Anna." I said.

"Fine!" She huffed. " I just figured...You know, you're just so busy all the time...Meetings and paper work and whatnot, I just figured you'd be busy with all that. It's selfish of me because...Well, we will have the rest of the day after the shipment but I just like spending time with you."

I stared at her for a moment, blinking as I tried to make sense of what she said. She was disappointed because she thought I had something else to do with my morning? I did have some paperwork that could be done, but after seeing the look on Anna's face I thought it could wait until tomorrow.

"As it turns out," I began. " I actually have nothing planned this morning." Anna's face brightened up considerably.

"Really? So what are you going to do?" She wondered. I sat back and thought about it for a moment. I wasn't sure. Normally I didn't have free time and on the few occasions that I did, I went to the library to read. What was there to do that we could enjoy together?

"I'm not sure." I said with a frown. "What do you want to do?" Anna thought for a moment, then looked up at me.

"Do you want to..." She looked almost afraid to ask. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth before continuing. "Do you want to...build a snowman?"

My blood ran colder than normal as fear surged through my veins. We hadn't built snowmen since we were children and I hit her in the head with ice. What if I did it again?

"Just a snowman." Anna said as if she knew what I was thinking. "We don't have to do anything else, just build one snowman with me. Please?"

"What if I hurt you again?" I whispered. Sudden tears threatened to spill from my eyes, but I held them back.

"You won't." Anna said confidently. "Please?" I was about to try to talk her out of it but the hope in her eyes stopped me. I imagined how disappointed she would be if I denied her. I couldn't bare it, I would just have to be really careful.

"Fine." I said, defeated. " We can build a snowman."

"Great!" She practically squealed in delight. She jumped up from her chair and grabbed my hand. "Come on, lets go!" She pulled me up and out the door. When we were kids, we always went to the ballroom. But Anna passed it up and kept going, part of me was happy. I still hadn't been able to face it, ever since coronation night.

"Where are we going?" I asked curiously, trying to keep up with Anna.

"Outside!" Anna responded.

"Where outside?" I wasn't one for surprises.

"It's a secret!" Anna said as she picked up her pace. Once we were outside she started leading me somewhere behind the castle, a place I've never been. Finally, we stood outside a wooden gate.

"Where are we?" I wondered out loud. Anna just smiled and opened the gate, causing me to gasp in awe. I stepped inside and looked around. There was a pond that was glittered beautifully, the water so clear that you could see the bottom; ducks swam peacefully, occasionally dipping into the water. Flowers of all colors grew randomly around the enclosed area where we stood and the whole area smelled wonderfully.

"Anna," I breathed. "I never knew this was here. What is this?"

"I found this place when I was younger." Anna said. " When you wouldn't answer your door and I got tired of talking to the paintings, I would go explore. I found this one day and I've never told anybody about it. Well, except Olaf, but only because he followed me. Now, I usually come here when I need some time alone."

"I'm sorry I was never there for you." I said quietly.

"I know." Anna said. "What's important is you're here now."

"This place is wonderful." I said, trying to change the subject. "Shall we begin?" I smirked as her excitement visibly grew.

"Yes! Do the magic!" Anna said, jumping up and down. My smile almost faltered. That's what Anna said to me when we were kids. I tried to ignore the guilt that rose inside.

'Uh, Elsa?" Anna asked. I noticed worry written on her face mixed with hope. I chose to focus on the look of hope. Anna believed in me, she was confident that I could do it without hurting her. I would just have to prove her right.

"Sorry, here we go." I raised my arms in the air and started with a small flurry.

"We'll need a bit more snow than that to build a snowman." Anna said, grinning. I smirked and made it snow harder. I was concentrating so much that I didn't hear somebody approach from behind until I hear Anna suddenly yell, 'Kristoff!', startling me. The pond froze over and little ice spikes formed around me on the ground at my fear.

I turned around to find Anna hanging off of Kristoff's neck. Didn't Anna say she hadn't shown anybody this place except Olaf?

"What are you doing here?" Anna asked, letting go of his neck.

"Well I saw the way you two were running and I had to come make sure you guys were okay." Kristoff said with a shrug. "You were going awfully fast. I was worried you guys may have been running from something." Anna laughed.

"No, we were just excited. Or, I was anyway." Anna said. She looked back at me. "I kind of dragged Elsa with me. Sorry..."

"No, I was excited too." I said, trying to ease her. "You just run faster than I do." Anna smiled again.

"So what were you two so excited about?" Kristoff asked. He finally seemed to notice the snow falling. "Snow?"

"Yeah, isn't it great?" Anna asked. There was enough snow on the ground that Anna fell back, giggling as she hit the snow and sunk in.

"Uh, yeah. But why are you making it snow?" Kristoff asked. "Winter's going to be here soon anyway." Anna was too busy rolling in the snow to answer, so I did.

"Anna wanted to build a snowman." I told him.

"Yes!" Anna suddenly jumped up. She leaned down and started packing snow together. When it was big enough, she started rolling it on the ground to make the bottom of the snowman.

"Guys, get building! We don't have all day." Anna said.

"Maybe I should go..." Kristoff started to say, but Anna jumped up and grabbed his hand.

"No, stay. Please?" She asked, then looked at me. "Can Kristoff stay and build snowmen with us?"

"That's fine." I said. Anna jumped on Kristoff again and hugged him. Suddenly a weird sort of angry feeling started to swirl inside of me like a red tide, trying to choke me. Was that jealousy? That was stupid, what was there to be jealous about? I shook my head and decided to ignore it.

"Ok, get building." Anna demanded. "Seriously, we only have until lunch." She went back to building her snowman and I smiled at how carefully she was constructing it. I looked over and Kristoff had started building one of his own, so I decided to start mine. I didn't want to disappoint Anna, after all.

Soon, I was really getting into it and all three of us were having a lot of fun. By the time we finished we almost had a whole tiny village of snowmen and even a couple snow cows and snow dog. I was patting the snow on the last snowman I was making when I suddenly felt something hit my neck.

I brought my hand up and felt my neck, realizing that It was a snowball. I looked up to find Anna standing there, her hands over her mouth to suppress her giggles. My eyes narrowed and I reached down, coming up with a sufficient amount of snow. I packed it all together and threw it at Anna. She laughed as she dodged it, reaching down to gather more snow.

As Anna was standing up she was caught off guard as she was hit on the side of her face with snow. Kristoff stood off to the side not bothering to hide his laughter. Anna stood, looking shocked, for a moment. Then she smirked.

"This means war!" She declared. Anna jumped behind one of her snowmen and I could tell she was making snow balls, preparing for battle.

I knelt down and started building a wall. If Anna was making ammo, I had to have protection. I built it with walls on the side because I wasn't quite sure if Kristoff was on anyone's side, or if he was against both of us. _Better safe than sorry, _I thought to myself as I finished it.

Next I began making my own snowballs, I had to be as prepared as possible. When I thought I had a good amount to start with I peered over my wall to see Anna and Kristoff at war. Kristoff made a good sized wall but Anna was just using her snowman, which left her completely open on my side.

I picked up a couple snowballs and hurled one over the wall. I watched as it hit her in the shoulder, causing her to startle. She must have forgotten I was there off to her side. When she noticed me she grinned, then darted from her current snowman to a better one. I threw my armful of snowballs one by one as she was changing snowmen, and only a couple hit her.

I grabbed another armful of snowballs and prepared for war.

When it was about time for lunch Anna and I dragged ourselves back into the castle to eat. Our clothes were soaked all the way through so we went to our rooms to change, then met up in the dinning room. We ate our food rather quickly, barely having time to taste it, before we were rushing out the door. Or rather, Anna was rushing and pulling me along behind her.

When we got closer to the Fjord I wiggled my hand out of hers, causing her to stop and look back at with confusion on her face.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked.

"How would it look if the queen was rushing around like that?" I asked, patting my dress to make sure it looked right. "Queens are expected to act proper, and running isn't proper for a queen."

"I guess you're right." Anna said thoughtfully. " I guess we could walk the rest of the way." The weather was beautiful, I noticed as we continued to walk. This was my favorite part of fall...Towards the end when the days were warm, sometimes chilly, and the nights were cold. Soon it would be winter and, of course, that was my favorite season.

When we arrived there were two of our larger sized ships docked. Men were starting to carry crates of apples onto the ships and I stood there for a minute. They were going to fill both of them with just apples? Whatever did they need so many for? As far as I knew, they were going to one of the smaller of the kingdoms. But I remembered that they didn't have good growing soil so they had to have most of their fruits and vegetables imported. But still, two large ships was a lot.

They noticed me walking towards them and all the men stopped what they were doing or put the apple crates on the ground, then bowed to me.

"Gentlemen." I said with a nod.

"Your Majesty." One acknowledged. I recognized him as the one in charge of the shipments.

"This is a lot of apples." I said, nodding towards all the crates that were being carried in. I hoped he would give an explanation.

"Yes, it is." The man said as he looked through the papers. "I have some papers for you to sign." He handed me the stack.

"All of these?" I questioned. I didn't realize there would be so much paperwork for a shipment of apples, no matter how large.

"Yes, all of them." He said and handed me a quill. "Excuse me, please." he turned away and started helping the other men carry crates.

"Paperwork?" Anna asked from next to me.

"It looks that way, yes." I responded. I flipped through the papers to see if any of them said why they needed so many apples. It looked like some sort of festival.

"This might take awhile." I said apologetically as I sat on a crate underneath a tree and started on the paperwork.

"That's okay." Anna said, sitting on the ground next to me. "I can wait."

I signed the last paper just as the man from before came up to me to inform that they finished loading the apples and were ready to set sail. I handed him the papers, he thanked me, then he got into one of the ships. Anna and I sat and watched the ships set sail, waiting until they were no longer visible before we headed to town.

The shipment took longer than I expected and the day was mostly done but we had a couple hours. Our first stop was the bakery. The girl at the counter seemed surprised to see us again, but didn't act quite like the last time.

"Your Majesty." She greeted. "Pleasure seeing you here!"

"The pleasure is ours." I said. "Your cookies were absolutely delicious last time." The girl blushed and started stammering, I smiled. "We would like some more, if you have them."

"Oh! Oh, of course!" The girl said, then jumped from her spot and got the cookies. She handed them to us and I handed her the money. She looked like she didn't want to take it, but she did, looking grateful.

"Thank you!" She said.

"No, thank you." I said, then Anna and I turned to leave. We walked around town, greeting people as we went when I overheard something. Some women were talking about a festival of some sort that was going to take place. Curious, I got a little closer so we could hear.

"Oh! My Queen!" One of them spotted us and bowed her head. "Princess Anna."

"I apologize." I said. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I was just curious to see what you were talking about."

"Oh the apple festival, of course." The other woman said. I was confused. There was an apple festival? How did I not know?

"Oh, I've heard about that!" Anna said suddenly. "I've always wanted to go!"

"What is it?" I asked, they all looked at me with wide eyes.

"You don't know what the apple festival is?" One of the women asked. I shook my head so she explained. "It signifies the end of fall and the beginning of winter. We set it up in the town square and it's all about apples. Candied apples, apple pie, apple tart, apple turnovers...everything apple."

"That sounds like so much fun!" Anna exclaimed excitedly.

"Will you two be joining us this year?" The first woman asked. Anna had said that she always wanted to go and she looked so excited.

"Of course." I agreed. "When is it?"

"Next Saturday." The second woman responded.

"As in tomorrow? Or the Saturday after that?" Anna asked.

"The one after." The woman responded.

"Great, we will be there." I said. " Anna, we should go if we're going to watch the sunset." Anna nodded and we said goodbye to the women. On our way to our tree, I saw a little boy out of the corner of my eye. Looking over, I saw that it was Simen.

"Hey Anna, Isn't that Simen?" I asked. The boy was holding a broom that was way too big and seemed to be sweeping in front of a shop, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Oh yeah, it is." Anna smiled. "He seemed to like me quite a bit last time we met."

"Yes, he did. You should go say hi to him." I said. "I bet you'd make his day." Anna's smile increased.

"Hey Simen!" She called as she started walking towards him. He looked up, dropped his broom, and almost fell back in shock.

"Uh...Hi." He said quietly, his eyes wide.

"How's it going?" Anna asked, kneeling down to his level.

"Fine." He said. "Just sweeping...What are you doing here?" He looked down and dug his foot into the ground.

"We were passing through," Anna said. She reached out and ruffled his hair, making his face turn a dark shade of red. "I thought I would stop by to say and say hi." Simen was staring at Anna with his mouth hanging open.

"Better close that mouth before flies fly in." Anna commented, placing her hand under his chin he pushed his mouth closed gently. I cocked my head, realizing how good Anna was with children. I could tell with her interactions with Simen that she was going to be a good mom.

"Sorry." He said, then seeming to remember his manners. "It sure was nice of you stop by and see me like this."

"It's no problem." Anna smiled. "But we should be going, I hope to see you again soon." She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, making him blush even deeper if that was possible.

"Uh. Okay. See you!" He said nervously, then ran up to the shop door and quickly went inside. I went up to Anna and smirked.

"I was right, I think you made his day." I said. "Did you see the way he blushed?"

"Yes!" Anna said happily. "It was positively adorable." We walked the rest of the way to our tree in silence, just walking and enjoying each other's company. When we made it I noticed more of the apples had fallen off the tree and were starting to rot. I spotted a bright red apple that was hanging low enough that I could reach it, so I reached up and pulled it from the tree. Knowing how much Anna liked apples, I handed it over to her with a smile.

"Thank you!" She said, happily biting into it. "Want a bite?" She passed it over to me. Shrugging, I took the apple from her and took a bite out of the side that she hadn't bitten out of yet. It was delicious, as the apples always were. They were one of my favorite fruits as well.

I handed the apple back and we settled down in the grass, facing the large body of water in front of us and stared off into the sunset. We didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, then I broke the silence and asked a question that'd I'd wanted to ask for quite some time.

"So what's up with you and Kristoff?" Anna turned her head and looked over at me.

"What do you mean?" She asked sounding confused.

"Well, are you two...you know...dating?" I questioned.

"Oh that!" She said, rolling her eyes. "No, we aren't dating. We kissed once when I gave him the new sled but then I realized that I would prefer to be just friends." I thought for a moment.

"You kissed him?" I asked, making Anna blush. "What was that like?" I'd never kissed anybody, but I always wondered what it was like. What it would feel like to have somebody else's lips against mine.

"I don't know." Anna said, her brows furrowing. "It didn't really feel like anything. You know when you read in stories and they talk about a spark that you feel when you kiss somebody? I don't think it's true, I didn't feel any spark when I kissed him."

"Maybe he just wasn't the right one." I said. "Maybe you have to find the right person and when you feel the spark you know it's meant to be."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Anna said, looking peacefully at the sky. "But when am I going to find the right one?"

"I don't know." I said shaking my head, "You could always-" I was cut off when Anna rolled over, looking at me angrily and at first I thought I had done something wrong.

"Nobody's going to want me when I went out and got pregnant without getting married first." Anna said, tears of anger threatened to spill from her eyes. "People probably think I'm disgusting."

"Nobody thinks that." I said with a frown. "Not that their opinions matter anyway. When the right guy comes a long, he won't care that you have a baby. He will love you for who you are." There was a sharp pain in my chest when I thought of Anna getting married to some guy. Would she leave the castle to be with him? Or would he come to the castle? I guess it didn't really matter who went where, as long as Anna was happy.

"You think so?" Anna asked. She scooted closer so she was right up against my side and she laid her head on my shoulder. Cautiously, I wrapped my arm around her and waited to see if she would tell me to stop. She didn't, so I left my arm.

"Of course." I said, even though it pained me to think of her with a man in that way. We sat there in silence until well after the sun had set and it was dark. At first I wondered if Anna had fallen asleep like that, but I saw her fingers playing with the blades of grass carefully.

"I think we should go back." I said quietly. "It's quite dark now. The staff will be worried about us." She nodded.

"I'm getting pretty tired anyway." She said. I stood up, pulling her with me and we made our way to the castle. When we got inside, Anna said she was just going to go to bed so I decided to walk her to her room. When we reached it, she opened the door and the first thing I saw was a large painting on the wall of a dragon breathing fire and a knight with a sword, trying to slay it.

"Did you paint that?" I asked in awe, it was incredible.

"Yeah." Anna said shyly.

"It's amazing." I told her.

"Thank you." She blushed. I smiled at her and noticed the dark circles under her eyes, she looked really tired.

"I'll let you get to sleep now." I said. I leaned down to kiss her on the cheek but she suddenly turned her head and before I knew what happened, our lips met. My head started spinning and a feeling of butterflies invaded my stomach. Her lips were so soft and smooth, time seemed to stop. There was a hand cupping the side of my face and suddenly I realized what happened.

Quickly, I pulled my lips from hers and my eyes widened when I realized exactly what I'd done. I just kissed my sister on the lips, I couldn't believe it. Anna was blushing and looked very confused.

"I'm...Oh goodness, I'm so sorry Anna!" I said, panic surging through my body. Before she could answer, I quickly turned and swiftly walked to my room. Slamming the door behind me, I sunk to the floor with my knees up to my chest. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes and hatred for myself. What must Anna think? She was probably disgusted.

Even through the disgust, I couldn't get over the feeling of her lips against mine and the undeniable spark that I felt when I accidentally kissed her.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

My eyes fluttered open slowly and I rolled over, yawning. The sun wasn't up yet so I knew it was still sometime in the early morning. A small smile was on my lips and I realized that I had been dreaming, but I couldn't quite remember what I dreamed about. I blinked and stared at the wall, trying to remember.

_Anna's lips suddenly crashed into mine and lingered for a moment._

_ "I love you." She said as she pulled away slightly. _

_ "I love you, too." _

_ Her lips were so soft...so sweet and gentle as they moved against mine..._

_ Lips and teeth against my jaw line caused me to gasp, licking and sucking on my earlobe caused gooseflesh to rise all over my skin._

_ Anna ran her tongue along my bottom lip and by reflex, I opened my mouth and granted her access...she pushed me back against the wall...Her leg moved between mine._

_ "Anna," I groaned_

I suddenly sat up in panic. I couldn't remember the whole dream, but that much I remembered and it was a rather unholy dream to be having about ones sister. I remembered accidentally kissing Anna the day before and realized, that was probably where the dream came from. Sometimes your mind could warp things and make them seem different. My mind must have taken the accidental kiss and turned it into being attracted to Anna.

Feeling a little better about the dream, I got out of bed and quickly changed. It was still too early for anybody to be up, but I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep so I walked over to my desk and gathered all my paperwork. I thought I might concentrate on it better if I was in my study and not in my own room.

Closing my bedroom door behind me, I started making my way towards my study. The halls were so quiet, nothing was heard except for the sounds of my feet pattering against the floor. Passing by Anna's room, I noticed that her door was cracked open a little bit. I stopped for a moment and stared at the door. I couldn't help it, I had to peek.

Slowly I crept the door open a little further and poked my head in. I smiled at the sleeping form on the bed. Anna seemed to be having a peaceful sleep, her mouth was hanging open slightly and a small stream of drool leaked out and down her cheek. Slowly I backed away and closed the door, then turned and continued to my study.

When I reached my study I shut the door behind me and sat down at my desk, then looked through the paperwork. There were a couple things from the Southern Isles, but nothing from Weselton, which pleased me. I was glad that they finally gave up trying to get us to trade with them, their desperation was starting to get ridiculous.

I scanned through the Southern Isles' paperwork, which mostly included trade agreements. I didn't mind trading with them. After the Great Thaw, King Magnus of the Southern Isles had sent a letter apologizing for his son's actions towards Anna and I, as well as our entire kingdom. At first I was rather weary, but the Southern Isles had always been a loyal trade partner in the past and they'd never done anything before to make us lose trust in them.

Hans acted on his own accords and King Magnus mentioned that he'd been punished severely once he got back to his own kingdom, so while I'd been weary of them, I didn't close off trade. They had things we needed and couldn't get anywhere else.

I scanned through the papers again, they were the usually papers so I signed and dated them after reading them thoroughly. I straightened all the papers together and set them aside, then sat back in my chair. That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and wasn't sure what to do. I stood and walked over to the window. The sun was just starting to come up which meant people would start waking up for the day within the next hour or two.

I looked down at the courtyard below and squinted when I noticed movement. _Looks like somebody is already awake, _I thought to myself as I tried to see who it was. Whoever they were, they were rather small... suddenly they tripped and their head rolled away from their body.

_Olaf, _I smiled. I wondered what he was doing. Nobody was with him, he was just running around by himself. I watched him for quite some time before he noticed me standing in the window. He waved excitedly at me, so I waved back with a small smile on my face.

When Olaf turned away and went about his business, I turned back to my desk. Suddenly I noticed some papers laying on the left corner of my desk that I hadn't noticed before so I sat down to see what they were. My eyebrows rose when I noticed that one set of the papers was from the Northern Isles and the other set was from Corona.

We currently didn't have any trades going on with the Northern Isles and hadn't for years, and while we'd been close with Corona while my parents were alive, we've lost touch over the years. It was curious, what could they want?

I decided to go through the Northern Isles paperwork first, and it took quite a while. They felt the need to add so many unneeded details, that it almost took away from what they really wanted. After reading it through a couple of times, I could tell that they just wanted some of our crops. Simple as that. The letter never proposed what they could give us in exchange, so I tried to think of what the Northern Isles had that could benefit us. Nothing came to mind, so I would have to ask the council on our next meeting tomorrow.

I curiously moved onto Corona's paperwork, and was delighted by the time I reached the end. They knew our Navy was lacking, and was willing to trade us building supplies for our apples. They suggested that the building supplies could be put towards building some more navy ships, which we desperately needed if we ever needed to protect ourselves, or heaven forbid, went to war. While we had decent enough soil to grow some good crops and apples, and being able to catch a lot of fish, we didn't have many materials that could be used for building anything.

Apparently, a disease of some sort went through and killed a large portion of their apple orchard, and while they could live without apples, they heard that we had the best apples in the land and were willing to trade so much for them.

I reached over and grabbed my quill and some paper, then began responding to the letter right away. I wrote that I wanted to do the trade, and even offered some grains since we had some to spare and they were giving us so much for so little.

Just as I was finishing the letter, a knock at the door startled me. I set the quill down and fixed my posture.

"Who's there?" I called out.

"Uh, Just me." Anna called from the other side of the door. My heart started racing. What was I going to do? I still hadn't seen Anna since I kissed her, I still don't know how she reacted...how she felt about it. Obviously, she was probably revolted.

"Elsa?" Anna sounded concerned when I didn't answer back.

"Yes? Come in." I responded. After a moment, the door slowly opened and Anna stepped in. She looked nervous. Was it my fault that she was nervous? Maybe she was scared of me.

"Is everything alright?" I asked.

"What? Oh, yeah." Anna said. "You were just late for breakfast so I wondered if you were alright. I didn't find you in your room so I came to check for you here."

"Oh! Is it time for breakfast already?" I looked at the clock, it was. "Did you eat yet?"

"No, I was waiting for you." Anna said, a smile forming on her lips. I stood, feeling a little guilty. She always waited for me, no matter what. She was always there, being her kind, loving self.

"Well lets go, then." I said, walking around the desk. "I bet you're hungry, I know I am."

"What were you doing up so early?" She asked on our way to breakfast.

"I just couldn't sleep." I said quickly. "I decided to get some paperwork done. It was a rather productive morning."

"It was?" Anna asked curiously. She seemed genuinely curious, and I thought that was kind of strange. Normally my paperwork and other queenly duties bored her. We reached the dinning room and went to our spots.

"Yes. I had some paperwork from the Northern Isles." I said. Anna raised her eyebrow, looking as surprised as I was when I saw the papers.

"We haven't heard from them in awhile." Anna said. "What was it all about?"

"They want some of our crops. Problem is, everybody seems to want some of our crops, especially our apples. I don't know if we have enough to go around." I said, sticking my fork into some eggs. "Winter's going to be coming up soon."

"What are they going to give us for the crops?" Anna asked. I shook my head.

"I'm not sure, they didn't propose anything and I lack knowledge of what they have to offer." Anna looked thoughtful for a couple moments.

"They have a lot of mines there, which we don't have any." Anna said after awhile. " We could ask for some of their ore. They also raise a lot of sheep, and we could ask for wool."

"How do you know all that, Anna?" I wondered. "You've always hated studying."

"Yeah, that's true. But it does come in handy." She shrugged.

"I didn't even know that and Greta was always hard on me about studying." I smiled. "Anyway, we could always use the ore, but that doesn't seem like a fair trade."

"If they really need the crops, they'll do it." Anna responded.

"Yes, they would. But I don't want them to have ill feelings towards us." I said. " They might not like it if we make unfair trades when they are going through hardships."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Anna said. " We could always use the wool too." I nodded.

"I'll discuss it with the council tomorrow." I said. "I'm not even sure we can spare the crops, I'll have to check on that." We ate the rest of the meal in silence. Anna was acting so normal, I wondered if she had forgotten that I violated her.

When we finished breakfast, we stood and I was about to excuse myself when I noticed that Anna was wearing a dress that I'd never seen before.

"Is that a new dress?" I asked her. "I don't think I've seen it before."

"Yeah." Anna said, looking away. "Greta had to have some new ones made. You know, because I can't fit into my other ones now." She patted her stomach and it was then that I noticed the bulge. The baby seemed to be growing rather quickly, Anna was so small to begin with.

"It's beautiful." I told her when I noticed the look of embarrassment on her face.

"You really think so?" She beamed at me.

"Of course." I responded. Suddenly she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. After a couple seconds of shock, I wrapped my arms around her to return the hug. Once Anna pulled away, I excused myself to go practice my archery. Anna looked disappointed, but got better once I told her that I would spend the evening with her.

I showed up to my archery lessons on time, unlike the last time. Henrik greeted me warmly and I smiled as I greeted him back. The older man was starting to grow on me and I was starting to enjoy his company.

"How are you, Your Majesty?" He asked.

"Please, call me Elsa." I said. "I'm doing just fine, how are you?"

"Great, such a beautiful day we're having." Henrik said. He handed me the bow but I noticed that there weren't any arrows nearby.

"I want to try something different this time." He said, noticing my confused look. " You seemed to hit the target right in the middle last time with your ice arrows, I want to explore that more." I nodded, as long as nobody was around I figured it would be alright.

I made my first arrow and aimed it at the target. I wondered what Anna was planning on doing the rest of the day. Would she sit in the library and read? Would she paint in her room? Play with Olaf? I wondered if she would talk to the paintings, or if she was done with that now that I wasn't locking myself away from her. I couldn't believe that I ignored her for so many years, she was so beautiful and kind...Sweet, loving Anna...And I was so mean to her.

"Uh, Your- I mean, Elsa?" Henrik said, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Yes?" I asked.

"You may shoot whenever." He said.

"Right. I know that. Okay." I shot the arrow and surprisingly missed the target completely. I stood there and stared at my ice arrow, sticking out of a tree yards away from the target.

"Don't worry about it, just try again." Henrik said, he sounded surprised. I made another arrow and aimed it. Suddenly, kissing Anna sprang into my mind. I shook my head to clear it, but Anna's warm, soft lips invaded my mind. I let go of the arrow and frowned as it went straight into the ground.

"Okay, try again." Henrik encouraged. I made another arrow and aimed it. Butterflies were fluttering in my stomach. I wondered if Anna liked the kiss, she didn't seem too disgusted by it. Was she somewhere in the castle, thinking about it? I imagined what would have happened if the kiss had continued. In my mind, hands wandered, teeth nipped, tongues soothed and lips danced. I shot the arrow, flinging it over the target and off into the distance.

"Are you doing alright, Elsa?" Henrik asked, sounding genuinely concerned. He took a couple steps closer to me. "You look flushed, maybe we should postpone our lessons."

"No, I'm fine." I reassured him. " I can do it, let me try again." Without waiting for him to answer, I quickly made an arrow and shot it. That time, I hit the target but it kind of just dangled off the edge.

"That's better!" Henrik said. I didn't feel like I did any better, but I kept going. Over the next couple of hours, I kept getting distracted. A couple of my arrows made it to the center of the target, but for the most part I kept missing.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Henrik asked. " You did perfect the other day with your ice arrows, and now you're barely hitting the target."

"Yes, I'm fine." I reassured him. "I'm just a little distracted today, I guess."

"Would you like to call it a day then?" Henrik asked. "You have been at it for a couple of hours now."

"Yeah, that might be a good idea." I responded. I handed the bow back over to Henrik with a smile. "Thank you, I'll do better next time." He nodded and I left. I wasn't sure what to do. Normally I would go look for Anna, but I still wasn't sure if she wanted to see me. I didn't have much time to just myself normally, I was always in meetings or with Anna. I decided to go to the library to read.

I scanned the shelves, not really knowing what I wanted to read. I liked reading a little bit of everything, though I never really read very many romance novels. Romance was more of Anna's book preference. Finally I spotted a book that Anna had recommended to me once, it was an adventure romance novel and she said it was one of the most adventurously romantic book she'd ever read.

I plucked the book from the shelf and turned it over, looking at it. I could tell that it'd obviously been read many times, judging by the falling apart cover. That was generally a sign that it was a really good book so I walked over to the chair by the window and settled down for a quiet day of reading.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Pst! Elsa! Elsa, wake up!"

Startled, I jerked awake and realized that I was pinned on my back and somebody was straddling my stomach. Panicked, I quickly looked at the intruder and groaned.

"What, Anna?" I yawned. " It's the middle of the night, why aren't you sleeping?"

"I know, I know!" Anna said loudly. " But something weird happened and It woke me up and I had to come tell you."

"What happened?" I asked, somewhat curiously. I yawned again.

"Just...Something weird happened in my stomach." Anna said, her eyebrows furrowed as she thought about it. "I think I could feel it move in there." A smile spread on my face.

"That's great Anna!" I said happily. She gasped and clutched her stomach again. Worry flooded me, I couldn't tell if she was in pain or feeling the baby again.

"Are you okay?" I wondered.

"Yes." She smiled. "It's happening again." Before I knew what happened, Anna reached down and grabbed my hand. She placed it on her belly right where I could feel a small movement, like something was kicking from the inside. I held my breath as the baby shifted again, like it was rolling over, and then stilled.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Anna asked.

"Yes." I breathed as I took my hand off her stomach. "It's just...amazing." After feeling the baby kicking and shifting inside of Anna, I realized that the living, growing baby inside of my sister was going to be born. At the end of the pregnancy, Anna would have to give birth and then we would have a pink, wrinkled baby boy or girl that would grow. It would grow into a curious toddler, always getting into some sort of trouble. But then it would continue to grow into adulthood, and who knows who the child would grow up to be.

For the first time, I suddenly realized, really realized, that Anna was going to have a baby and that child was going to be with us forever. It wasn't temporary. It would live with us in the castle for a long time and it would need to be cared for.

"Elsa?" Anna asked, worry lacing her voice. "Are you okay? You've suddenly gone silent"

"What? Oh yes, I'm fine." I said, "I was just thinking of this baby. It's just...It's alive in there and when it's born we will have a small baby in the castle."

"Yeah, we will." Anna said thoughtfully. " I wonder what it'll look like! Oh..."

"What is it?" I questioned at the dark look that crossed Anna's face.

"What if...What if it looks like...Hans?" Anger rose up in me at the thought of Hans, but I pushed it down and out of the way. Anna didn't need me getting upset and causing snow.

"It's going to look just like you." I said quietly, taking her hands in mine.

"And if it doesn't?" She trembled, a tear escaping through her eye.

"Would you stop loving it?" I asked, looking into her eyes. I knew Anna would love the baby no matter what, but Anna needed to realize that as well.

"I don't know...I'm not...I've never..." She stopped, blinking tears. "I guess...I suppose I would still love him or her." I nodded at her.

"That's right, because this is your baby, not Hans'." I told her, yawning unexpectedly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you up." Anna said. She bit her bottom lip like she normally did when she wanted to say something but was too nervous.

"No, you didn't." I said as I tried not to yawn. "I'm glad I got to feel the baby kick and that we talked."

"Me too." She smiled, rubbing her belly. "Would you mind...if I slept the rest of the night with you?"

"Of course not." I said as I patted the bed next to me.

"Thanks Elsa." She said, quietly. She leaned down and kissed my forehead, lingering just a moment longer than necessary. Her warm breath ghosted over my skin and caused gooseflesh to form on the back of my neck, I felt my face flush.

Anna pulled away suddenly and scooted off my stomach onto the bed next to me, then burrowed underneath the blankets. She sighed and snuggled up to my side, resting her head on my shoulder. I smiled and rested my head against hers.

I remembered that when we got up in the morning it would be time for the apple festival. It was already Friday, and I still hadn't talked to Anna about the day I kissed her. I knew I should probably approach the subject, but I just couldn't make myself do it.

Anna tried to bring it up a few times, but I got scared and quickly changed the subject right away. I couldn't handle the rejection. I could handle rejection from almost anybody, but not from Anna. I knew I had to talk to her. I worried my bottom lip in between my teeth as I thought about what to say. maybe I could tell her after we got back from the apple festival. At least that way, we had one last day of fun.

I could just tell her the truth, that it was an accident. I could apologize, and say that the kiss wasn't directed at her lips. I would leave out the part where I seemed to enjoy it and that I felt a spark when it happened, but the rest I would be completely truthful. I sighed in relief. There's no way she would be upset after I explained myself. Why didn't I just think of doing that in the first place?

Content, I snuggled down further and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

A bit confused, I slowly blinked my eyes open only to quickly snap them shut at the sudden assault of bright sunlight. I groaned and rolled over, recoiling back when my forehead hit something hard. My eyes opened and gazed curiously at the person in my bed. Anna stared back at me and suddenly her getting into my bed hours before rushed back into my mind.

"Ugh, what time is it?" I groaned, turning and burying my head in the pillow.

"It's pretty late..." Anna said quietly. By the tone of her voice, I could tell she was trying to hide something.

"How late?"

"Eleven...or so." She said. I sprang up in panic. Eleven? I never slept until eleven! I almost always got up before the sun was even up.

"Why didn't you wake me? I've never slept past breakfast before!" I threw the blankets back and got out of bed.

"You were sleeping so peacefully." Anna said, also getting out of bed. " I didn't have the heart to wake you. Besides, it's your day off and the apple festival doesn't start until noon anyway. We have a whole hour."

"Yes, but..." I started, but couldn't find a way to finish the sentence. I felt more well rested than I normally did, and it was my day off. "No harm done, then." I smiled.

"Right!" Anna smiled back. "I'm going to go get dressed now. I'll meet you outside?"

"Okay." I agreed. I watched her leave my room, closing the door behind her. Then I turned and began undressing. I looked through all the clothes I had, and nothing seemed good. I didn't want to overdress, but everything I had was very...Queenly. There were a couple of simple dresses at the back of my closet from before I was crowned, but they didn't seem festive enough either.

Sighing, I just moved my arm, letting the magic run through my veins and created my own ice dress. It was different then the one I wore before, it wasn't as fancy but it wasn't too plain either. It seemed just perfect for going into town, I gave myself a small, nervous smile in the mirror, then turned and left my room.

Anna was waiting for me outside like she said she would be. I hesitantly approached her. I don't know why I was so nervous, maybe it was because I was going to talk to her after it was over. I pulled at my dress, it seemed too tight.

"Oh wow, Elsa, you look beautiful." Anna said. "I've never seen that dress before."

"I wasn't sure what to wear, so I made my own dress..." I said.

"I can tell that you made it. Nobody around here could make something so elegant."

"I didn't overdo it, did I?" I asked.

"No," Anna smiled, "It's perfect."

"Thank you, you look beautiful as well." I said and I meant it. She wore a light green dress that even had little red apples along the bottom. "Your dress looks festive." We began walking into town.

"It's an old dress that I've had for awhile, but Greta had some apples stitched along the bottom when she found out I was going to the apple festival. She knows that I've wanted to go for so long." Anna grinned happily.

"Greta's something, isn't she?" I asked. " She's always looking out for us."

"She loves us." Anna shrugged. "She took over kind of a motherly roll after our parents died. She told me once that she loves us like her own."

"Really?" I wondered. Me and Greta were always close, but she never said things like that to me. Maybe because I never let her in. I frowned, feeling guilty. "What would we do without her?"

"Crash and burn." Anna responded, a serious expression on her face. She glanced over at me and we both couldn't help but start giggling.

Once we got into town a little further, the streets were very busy. Children were running around, laughing and screaming as they chased each other around all the people and stalls that were open. Adults stood around talking, laughing, and enjoying all the apple treats available. Most of the people I recognized from our previous outing, a few I didn't.

"This is wonderful!" Anna exclaimed happily. She danced forward and spun, making her dress twirl around her. "Look at all the people! Look at all the apples!"

"Yes, it is wonderful." I agreed. "Do you smell that?" Anna sniffed the air.

"Apple Pie!" She exclaimed as she practically bounced on her heels. "One of my favorites!"

"I wonder which stall it's coming from." I said. "There are so many!"

"I don't know, but I want to try a little bit of everything here." She said, determination all over her face.

"That's a lot of food." I told her. " Even if you try just one bite of everything, you might burst."

"Naw, I'm a bottomless pit." Anna said, rubbing her belly. "Come on!" She grabbed my hand and started pulling me along to the nearest stall.

"Ohhh, look Elsa! Apple muffins!" She exclaimed. "Don't they look delicious?"

"They do." I agreed. I looked at the woman running the stall and noticed that it was one of the women who told us about the Apple festival.

"How much are they?" I wondered. The woman looked at me with wide eyes.

"Your Majesty, I'm glad you two could make it." She said. "You don't have to pay, everything here is free. This is our way of seeing off autumn and welcoming winter, it's a celebration." I smiled.

"May I have one, then?" Anna asked.

"Of course, your highness." The woman responded. Anna reached forward and plucked a muffin off the table and took a bite. She practically moaned into the muffin.

"This is delicious!" She exclaimed. She handed the other half to me, and I carefully took it from her hand. Taking a bite, I understood the noise Anna made when she had her half of the muffin. It was positively exquisite.

"I'm glad you two like it." The woman smiled. We thanked her and moved on.

Anna and I wondered through town, trying all of the delectable treats. We tried all kinds of apple breads, apple cider pound cake, caramel apple upside down cake, apple brownies, several different kind of apple pie, apple butter cookies, apple crumb squares, apple bread pudding, apple turnovers, autumn apple cheesecake, apple crisp, and apple strudels.

"I don't think I can eat anymore." I told Anna as I finished off her caramel apple. " I don't think I've ever eaten so much at one time in my whole life."

"C'mon, there's only like five stalls left." Anna said.

"How can you possibly want any more?" I asked. "How can you even have room for anymore food?"

"I don't know," She shrugged, rubbing her belly. "I'm always hungry, especially now these days. Besides, it's the apple festival. You have to overdo it!"

"Fine, but can we at least stop for a couple of minutes and take a break?" I requested. "There's a nice tree over there." Anna nodded and I was relieved to finally sit down. We didn't say anything, we just sat under the tree and enjoyed each others company.

We watched all the people walking by, trying the numerous treats for the first time. They're reactions were fun. Many had the same reactions that Anna and I had when we tried them. I don't think a single person tried the food and disliked any of it. Suddenly a little boy ran across my view.

"Look, it's Simen." I elbowed Anna in the side. She smiled when she saw him. He was running around, playing with a couple of other little boys. It looked like they were playing tag of some sort. He turned to start running the other way, but spotted us sitting under the tree. Simen stopped in his tracks, then slowly made his way over.

"Hey Simen!" Anna greeted him.

"Hi." He said shyly. He started digging his toes in the dirt like he normally did when he was nervous.

"Are you having fun?" Anna asked him.

"Oh, yes!" He exclaimed. " The Apple Festival is one of my most favorite festivals. This is only my third time going."

"This is my first time." Anna responded, then giggled at his astounded expression.

"Why?" He wondered.

"I just wasn't able to until now, but now I'm here." She said. " And I'm so glad I went. Have you been trying all of the treats?"

"Yeah, my favorite is the Autumn apple cheese cake." Simen had a grin on his face.

"Yeah, that one was good. I think my favorite was the apple cinnamon muffins." Anna said, looking thoughtful. Simen sat down in the grass in front of Anna, and then gasped.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked, worry in her voice.

"What happened to your belly?" He pointed to her stomach.

"Oh, that. I'm going to have a baby." Anna said. Simen looked shocked and amazed.

"But it wasn't that big before." He said confused.

"That's because it's growing in there." Anna responded. She reached forward and ruffled his soft, brown hair. I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind as he thought.

"But...Where's it's Papa?"It was an innocent question, but I could feel Anna tense next to me.

"He had to go away." Was all she said. He looked confused.

"Where?" He asked.

"Just...Back to his own home." Anna said. It looked like Simen was about to ask another questions, when Anna jumped in. "Why don't you go play with your friends? I bet they're waiting for you." He nodded, then stood and took a couple of steps closer to Anna, then he wrapped his little arms around her neck.

He let go after a moment, then said good bye. I watched him run off, disappearing into the crowd before saying anything.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Of course." Anna responded, looking as if nothing happened. She jumped off the ground. "You ready to hit those last stalls?"

"Yes, I think I can fit a little more food in my stomach." I said, we stood and made our way to the last stalls. By the time we got to the last one and tried the apple dumplings, I was sure I was going to burst. I held my stomach and groaned, causing Anna to worry.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I've just never been so full before in my life." I said, straightening myself.

"I had so much fun!" Anna exclaimed. "Thanks for doing this with me."

"It's no problem, Anna." I told her. "I had fun too." My stomach started to churn when I realized it was starting to get dark and people were starting to go home. I needed to talk to Anna about the kiss soon, the day was up.

"I think we should go back to the castle now, it's getting late." I said. Anna was giving me a strange look, I hoped she didn't sense how nervous I was but if I knew Anna, she probably knew how nervous I was and probably even knew why.

"I guess you're right." Anna said, she didn't look disappointed. We started making the long walk back to the castle, passing villagers as we went. By the time we made it, it was completely dark out. I paused by the doors, instead of going in.

"Elsa, what's wrong?" Anna asked concerned. "You've been acting strange."

"I just...We need to talk." I mumbled.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"

"Do you remember...When I...Uh, you know...When I kissed you?" My chest felt tight and I found it hard to breathe. I was finally doing it, I was talking to Anna.

"Yeah, I remember." To my surprise, Anna was smiling.

"Well...I just wanted to...apologize." Anna's smile faltered. "I didn't mean to, I meant to kiss you on the cheek and I missed. I'm sorry, I hope you're not mad."

"Oh, of course I'm not mad." Anna said. Her smile was gone and I was confused. She looked more upset than before. "But...you didn't feel it?"

"Feel what?" I knew what she was talking about.

"The spark."

"What spark?" I questioned back. I knew exactly what spark she was talking about, but I didn't know what to do or say. I felt so lost, what did she want?

"You can't tell me you didn't feel it." Anna said, tears started to fill her eyes. "I certainly did."

"I just...It's wrong. Anna, you have no idea how wrong it is." I stated. "There may have been a spark, but it was probably just because we have such a close bond. A sisterly bond."

"But the spark happens when you find your soul mate." Anna said.

"In the stories," I responded. "They're probably just that, stories." Anna looked so dejected. I wanted to hug her, to comfort her. But I couldn't help but just stand there.

"But I felt it." Tears leaked out. I wanted to tell her that I felt it too, but having sexual relations with another of the same sex was punishable by death.

"Nothing can happen." I stated. "Homosexuality is punishable by death, I can't imagine what they'd do to someone who practiced incest as well." It was true. Even if I did feel something for Anna, I would never put her in such danger.

"But you're the queen, everybody loves you. Besides, you make the rules. You could just change them." Anna said.

"It doesn't work that way." I said. " Things have to go through the council first, before becoming a law. Anyway, they probably wouldn't love me so much if they found out that I defiled my little sister."

"You didn't defile me!" Anna said angrily. "It wouldn't be defiling me. It would be loving me." So that's what it was about? Was Anna feeling unloved? She was probably lonely.

"I can love you without defiling you." I said. " I already love you so much, and that's why this can't happen." Why couldn't this go as easily as I had imagined? Why couldn't Anna have just accepted that it was an accident and be happy with it? Why did she have to feel the spark too?

"You don't have to protect me all the time." Anna said, crossing her arms over her chest. " I can protect myself, you know. I can do what I want."

"I don't feel that about you." I finally said flatly. "You're my sister and I care for you deeply, but the kiss was an accident and I'm sorry that I hurt you." The look of devastation on Anna's face was enough to push the air from my lungs and I couldn't seem to bring any back. My stomach churned as she took a step back from me.

"You...Fine." The emotion went from her voice and she turned towards the doors."I'll just...I'm going to bed."

"Anna, wait-"

"Good night!" She said, then turned and ran into the castle. I tried to go after her, but she slammed her bedroom door and locked it. It was strange being on the other side of a locked door, the feeling was crushing. I felt like crying. When I heard Anna on the other side, sobbing quietly, I knocked gently.

"Go away!" She shouted. _What have I done, _I wondered to myself sadly. I slowly turned from the door and went to my own room.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: I have future events planned, but to get there I need some filler chapters. Unfortunately, I've run out of ideas. Does anybody have any suggestions? What do you guys want to see happen? Let me know if you guys think of anything!**

* * *

Chapter Eleven

I didn't sleep much through the night. I laid down and tried to sleep, but after hours of tossing and turning through the night, I finally got out of bed to look out the window. It was dark, so I couldn't actually see anything but I looked up at the sky. There weren't many clouds, giving me a clear view of the beautiful stars above.

I smiled slightly as I stared up at the twinkling stars. There were so many up there, billions of stars...all staring down at us, watching. It was wondrous, so many endless possibilities. What was really up there? I shifted my eyes over to look at the nearly full moon as a cloud glided over it, giving it an eerie feeling. I turned around and began pacing around my room.

What was I going to do about Anna? She seemed to...I don't know, want something to become of the kiss. But that couldn't have been right. There was just so many things wrong about the whole thing. I mean, we were both girls. You couldn't have two girls in a relationship. How would they have offspring? Not to mention, it was against the law. Not only that, but we were related by blood. What's more twisted than being in a romantic relationship with your sister? Nothing, that's what.

I continued to pace, not noticing the light snow that began to fall from the ceiling. Anna was just so upset. How could I make it right again? I could have tried talking to her again, to make her see reason...But I had a feeling Anna wouldn't see reason. When she got her mind stuck on something, it was impossible to change it.

The snow fall grew heavier as my heart started racing. I was getting so anxious just thinking about did I feel? I sat down on the bed to think for a moment. I thought back to our kiss. I felt...warm. A strange kind of warm, kind of tingly all over. What did that mean? It wasn't something I'd felt before. My head felt light, like it was going to float away. Most of all though, I felt happy.

I started to panic. It couldn't be true. I couldn't love my sister like that, she was my sister, for goodness sake! I ran my fingers through my hair and racked my brain for a reasonable explanation.

Well, I had been deprived of human contact for thirteen years. Maybe because of that, any touches would send sparks through my nerves like that. After I thought about it, Anna still had been the only one to touch me in any sort of way and it always made me feel the same, strange feelings.

Of course, I was just starved for human contact. That was the only reasonable explanation. Sighing, I flung myself back on the bed, causing light snow to puff up into the air. I raised my eyebrows and looked at the ceiling, sighing as I noticed it for the first time. I closed my eyes and concentrated on making it stop, but I drifted off to sleep instead.

When I woke up, the sun was up and I groggily looked at my clock. It was eight. Still later than I would have liked to get up, but I didn't mind too much. I was too tired to care. I carefully stood from my bed, my joints cracking and creaking as I slowly made my way over to my wardrobe to change.

Once I picked out my dress, I quickly put it on and then stretched my arms above my head. When I felt I had all the kinks out of my shoulders, neck, and back I threw my hair into a braid and left my room.

Part of me hoped that Anna already had breakfast and left, but the other part of me hoped that she was in there waiting patiently like she normally did. I slowly opened the door to the dinning room and walked in. To my, somewhat, surprise, Anna was sitting there, not looking at me but not yet eating.

I approached the table and took my seat.

"Good morning, Anna." I said quietly. Her cheeks were red, I hoped she was feeling alright.

"Oh, uh, good morning." She said back. We didn't say anything for an awkward few seconds.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Me? Oh, fine." She said. Then she glanced over at me and I could tell that she hadn't really slept either. " How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing well." I responded. Then after a moment, "You look tired."

"Yeah...I couldn't...I couldn't seem to sleep last night." She said with a shrug. She began putting food on her plate, so I did the same. I could guess why she couldn't sleep, I had troubles too. Maybe she was just as conflicted and confused as me. I didn't want to ask her about it.

"Was it because...of last night?" I asked anyway. A shrug was her only response. I put my fork down and looked at her.

"You know I love you, right?" I asked. " You are so important to me...You're all I have left." That brought a tiny smile to her face.

"I love you, too." She said quietly. "I just want..."

"What? What do you want, Anna?" I wondered. I wasn't sure why I kept asking questions when I already knew the answer.

"Nothing, it's not important." Anna said, looking dejected.

"I think we really need to talk," I said. "Without any of us running off before we're done." I added. Anna sighed.

"It's just, I know you love me and care for me. I know you're just trying to protect me, like usual, but I just want to be with you." Anna said. "You locked yourself away from me for thirteen years, even when I pleaded and begged, cried and yelled for you to come out. You never did. You never said a single word."

"I know, I'm so sorry Anna." I said, emotion lacing my voice. "I was just doing what I thought was right. Mama and Papa-"

"This is Mama and Papa's fault." Anna suddenly said angrily.

"What?" Confusion obvious in my voice.

"They made you so afraid of yourself that you couldn't be around me." She said. I noticed that her hands were balled into fists so I reached forward and gently pried them apart. "They wouldn't let anybody see you, especially me. All for what, this? You're so scared and anxious all the time, and sometimes I can see the depression, just lurking behind you as it whispers terrible things at you. They did this. Instead of embracing your powers and teaching you how to use them, how to control them, they just told you to conceal them, to not feel."

There was a pause. I was a little shocked at the outburst and how did she know about the depression that sometimes consumed me? I thought I hid it so well.

"They did what they thought was best." I said quietly, after a moment.

"There are so many other ways they could have handled it." Anna said, the anger draining from her face. "They didn't have to take you from me." I didn't know what to say. Of course, Anna was right. Our parents could have handled it differently, but what's done is done.

"I just...I just want to hold you and kiss you, I want to make you feel better when the depression hits you. I want to touch you." Anna said brokenly. "And I know it's wrong. It's so very wrong. I know we'd be put to death and I know that's why you won't let anything happen between us... I just don't understand, why do I have these feelings of wanting you?"

"You were deprived of attention too, Anna. The only people you ever really saw was Mama and Papa and Greta." I said. " Maybe after all those years of wanting to spend time with me, you're mind confused it with...this. I'm just as confused as you are."

"What do you mean, do you feel it too?" Anna wondered.

"I'm not sure what I feel. I spent most of my life trying not to feel anything, I don't understand much of anything."

"Well, what does it feel like?" Anna asked. "Maybe I can help you figure it out." I thought about that for a moment, if anybody could tell me what I was feeling, it was probably Anna. I wasn't sure I wanted to know, though.

"What does it make you feel when you think of me?" Anna questioned.

"Warm. Like, heat coursing through my veins." I started out. " My whole body starts to tingle, like my nerve ending are on fire. My hands sweat, which isn't normal for me, and I suppose my heart starts to race..." Anna was smiling.

"That's the same thing I feel." She said.

"What do you think it means?" I wondered.

"It means we're in love." Anna said bluntly with a shrug.

"It can't be, I won't accept it." I shook my head. "We're family, we're sisters. Can you imagine what would happen? What people would think?"

"Who really cares what they think, anyway?" Anna questioned.

"I do, and you should too." I answered. "They'd kill us. They'd probably be so appalled that they'd burn us at the stake for it. They'd probably torture us too." I felt panic starting to rise up in me.

"I honestly don't think they'd do all that." Anna said, sounding surprised. "Sure, they may not like it. But you're their queen, and I'm their lovable princess, they adore us. It would be outside kingdoms that we'd have to watch out for, like Weselton." Of course, she was right again.

"Still...Can we just pretend it never happened? Pretend none of this is happening." Anna's face dropped slightly. "Just know, that I really do love you and I care for you too much to let anything happen to you." Anna took a moment, then nodded.

"Okay, as of today, none of it happened and we'll go about our daily lives like normal." I could tell she didn't like the idea, but I didn't know how else to handle the situation.

"Thank you, Anna." I said. Anna didn't say anything, but picked up her fork and began to eat her food. I did the same, not minding that the food went cold.

"Do you have plans today?" Anna asked, about half way through breakfast.

"I'm going to meet with the council today." I told her. "We have to discuss The Northern Isles. I responded to Corona's letter, but I have yet to talk to the council about the Northern Isles."

"That should be interesting." Anna said with a nod.

"What about you, have you got any plans for today?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"I think Kristoff got back from his latest delivery yesterday, I bet you could track him down." I suggested. Kristoff was a really great guy and would be perfect for Anna. I think he's even taken a fancy to her.

"Yeah, I guess I could go find him." Anna said.

We finished our plates with another awkward silence.

"I guess I'll see you tonight?" I half stated, half asked.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you tonight." Anna responded. We stood up from our chairs and left the dining room. I went one way, and Anna went the other.

When I entered for the meeting, the whole council was already there, waiting for me.

"Sorry I'm late." I said as I came forward and took my seat.

"No problem, Your Majesty." The head council member said. "Have you gone through the paperwork that I left on your desk?"

"Yes, I did. I've already sent a response to Corona, I've agreed to send them apples for building materials." I said. "But I've got a couple of questions about the Northern Isles' paperwork."

"Alright, go on." The head of the council said at my pause.

"First, they would like some of our crops. Do we have enough to spare?"I wondered. A scrawny man began flipping through papers before settling on one page and began reading over it.

"We have a little to spare, but not enough for the Northern Isles to survive on for the entire winter." He said, looking up at me. I frowned, why did everybody need crops all of a sudden? If anything, we should have been asking everybody else for help. But by some strange miracle, our crops survived the storm I made and we were doing fairly well.

"I guess they'll just have to take what we can give." I stated. "Have you any idea of what we should ask for in return?" They all thought for a moment.

"I think it would be wise to ask for wool." The scrawny man said. " We are in need of warm, winter clothes for the villagers and it seems a fair enough trade." I nodded, that did sound fair enough. More fair than asking for their ore, anyway.

"Alright, I'll get started on the paperwork after the meeting is finished with." I said, but the head of the council jumped in.

"Actually, I was hoping you could do it now." He pulled out the paperwork and set it in front of me along with a quill. "So then I can just send it off right away." That made sense, I guess. I started the paperwork and tried to ignore all the council members staring at me. When I finished it, I handed it back.

"Thank you, your Majesty." The head of the council said as he took the papers. "Now, there are some things I would like to discuss with you all."

He wanted to raise taxes. I thought it was a terrible idea, and wasn't really necessary.

"We can't raise taxes." I broke in, interrupting him mid-sentence.

"Why not?" He questioned.

"Because most of the villagers can't afford for the taxes to be raised." I stated. "Most struggle to raise their families with what they already have, we can't take more from them than we already do."

"Yes, but I thought you wanted to better our army and navy, and build more ships. That's what the extra tax money would go towards." He responded.

"Yes, I wanted to get a better army and navy, but we can't take anymore from our people."

"What do you propose?" Another council member asked.

"Well, we will be getting building supplies from Corona." I said. "I'm not sure how much they're sending us, but every little bit helps."

"What shall we do about soldiers then? If we don't raise taxes, we might not be able to pay them for their services."

"That's true..." I said thoughtfully. Then I had an idea. "Maybe we should have the villagers vote, and see what they want done." Various looks of surprise and disbelief crossed their faces.

"But we've never done such a thing before..." One middle aged man said.

"You're right, we haven't. But wouldn't it be good to give them a choice?" The council members all murmured quietly to themselves for a couple of minutes.

"I guess that could work." The head of the council said hesitantly. "It's settled, we will hold a vote within the next few days to decide what we're going to do."

The rest of the meeting dragged on, most of it consisted of the council members bickering back and fourth about matters that didn't seem to matter that much. I wondered what Anna was doing. Did she go find Kristoff? I wondered what they were doing together. They probably just spent their time talking and catching up.

Anna said they weren't together in a relationship, but for some reason I felt jealous. I tried to push it back, but I imagined them kissing, and anger flared up in my chest. I shook my head and ignored it. Anna deserved to be happy and Kristoff was a good guy, so If they did become a couple I would just have to be okay with it.

The council finished their bickering, so I excused myself and was on my way to the library when I ran into Greta.

"Oh, Your Majesty!" She said, "Are you doing alright? You seem a bit flushed and distracted." I thought back to my conversation with Anna earlier at breakfast. Greta was old enough to know what love was, I wasn't sure if I should ask her about it. I supposed, if I didn't tell her it was Anna, it would be alright.

"Greta, how can you tell if your in love?" I asked quietly. The look of surprise that crossed her face was priceless. She quickly wiped if off her face.

"So you've found yourself a man?" She questioned. "Do I know the lad?"

"What? Oh, no. You don't know him. I just...I don't know if I like...Him like that." I said, a little flustered. "How can you tell? What does love feel like?"

"Well, tell me a bit about him. What's he like?"

"Oh, well...Sh-he is just...I can't describe him. He's just so...wonderful." I said lamely. "But, better...He's funny, kind, and awkward, but in a good way...and a pure romantic. Sh-he's optimistic and loyal, selfless, sweet and loving."

"He sounds great." Greta said with a smile. "How do you feel when you're around him?"

"Like the world has stopped spinning and time has stopped ticking." I said quietly. "When he's around, I get all sorts of butterflies in my stomach and my heart begins to race, sometimes my hands start to sweat and I almost never sweat. I was quite alarmed the first time I noticed it."

"Does he make your toes curl when you kiss?"

"Wh-what?!" I said loudly, the pitch in my voice raising considerably. I felt my face flush.

"Have you kissed him?" Greta wondered curiously.

"Uh...Yes! No! Maybe!" I didn't know what to say.

"Did your toes curl when you kissed him?" Greta repeated. I thought back to the day we kissed. My toes had curled, what was that supposed to mean?

"Yes." I answered. "But what does this all mean?"

"My dear, you're in love." Greta said happily. Disappointment rose in my chest.

"But that's impossible." I said quietly. "I can't be in love with he-him."

"Why not?" She wondered, concerned.

"Just...Nothing. Excuse me, please. I have a lot to think about." I said, then turned and started heading towards the library. What was I going to do? I wasn't in love with Anna, It just wasn't possible. I just wouldn't say anything to Anna about my talk with Greta. I would just ignore all my feelings and go about life like normal.

I sat down in my favorite chair in the library. The book was still on the end table, so I picked it up and began reading from it. It was time for a distraction.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

It was such a beautiful day out, I was happily sitting in the garden with my Anna. We started out talking quietly but once we ran out of things to say, we sat without saying anything. Soon, Anna rested her head on my shoulder and fell asleep. I didn't mind, but my arm was getting a little numb. I flexed my fingers.

I looked down at Anna's sleeping face and wondered if there was any way of changing positions without waking her. With a sigh, I realized that there wasn't so I would just have to put up with it. I didn't mind that much, I smiled as Anna made a small snorting noise in her sleep.

A gust of wind blew, causing fallen leaves to dance around on the ground. The wind felt fine to me, but by the way Anna shivered and seemed to burrow into my shoulder, I figured it must have been a little chilly. It was that time of year. Soon it was going to be snowing, I couldn't wait.

Not very many people enjoyed winter as much as I did. For some, it was the worst part of the year. It was cold and caused frostbite, sometimes death if someone was out long enough. But the cold never bothered me and winter was just so beautiful. My favorite part of winter was when the first snow would fall and blanket the ground, glittering in the sunlight, undisturbed. Winter seemed so quiet and calm, like the world just slowed down for a bit.

I was startled out of my thoughts when I felt the ground shake. I turned to see what was going on and saw that it was just Olaf and Marshmallow. They were coming right towards us, I glanced at Anna as I felt her stir.

"Elsa! Hey, Elsa!" Olaf yelled happily as he approached.

"Shhh, Olaf." I shushed. " Anna's sleeping." He glanced over at Anna and put his hands up to his mouth.

"Sorry." He said quietly, but it was too late. Anna sat up and yawned, stretching her arms above her head.

"Oh, hi Olaf." Anna said. "Marshmallow, how are you?"

"Good!" Marshmallow roared excitedly. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Why was he roaring? Was he angry?

"Why are you yelling?" I asked, glancing at Olaf and then Anna.

"That's how he always talks." Anna shrugged. "You'll get used to it."

"Oh. Alright, then." I said as I looked back up at Marshmallow. I noticed he was holding something gently in his hands, but I couldn't tell what it was. I was about to ask what it was but was interrupted.

"Isn't it just great that Marshmallow decided to come play?" Olaf asked excitedly. "He always just spends so much time away!" Marshmallow grunted and sat down, causing the ground to shake.

"Yes, it's very nice to see you, Marshmallow." Anna said with a grin. "What do you do all day by yourself?"

"Explore." Said Marshmallow, with a shrug. He didn't seem happy about it.

"You get lonely though, don't you?" Anna wondered quietly. Marshmallow nodded slowly.

"You know, you can spend more time here." I spoke up. " You don't have to live out there by yourself." Marshmallow perked up. "You can come visit Olaf and us whenever you want."

"Okay!" Marshmallow roared happily. I waited a minute before speaking again.

"So, what have you got in your hand?" I asked when nobody else said anything.

Marshmallow got another grin on his face and bellowed, "Friend!"

"You've got a friend?" I asked confused. Marshmallow nodded enthusiastically, then thrust his arms at me and opened his hands.

I jumped up from the ground with a squeak and started backing up, but tripped on my dress and fell on my behind.

"What is it?" Anna exclaimed with alarm. She quickly stood from the ground and walked over to Marshmallow to see what kind of atrocity he held in his hands. I managed to pick myself off the ground and backed up a considerable distance. Anna looked at the thing in Marshmallow's hands, then over at me with a confused expression on her face.

"It's just a little mouse." She said. I shook my head.

"It's a rat." I said, disgust lacing my voice.

"What's wrong? You're not afraid, are you?" Anna asked. I could tell that she was trying to hold back a laugh.

"Of course I'm not afraid." I snapped at her. "They're filthy and carry disease. Marshmallow, go put it back in the forest where it belongs."

"No!" He roared at her, suddenly snapping his hands closed. A terrified squeak could be heard from within. "He's my friend!"

"I know that," I said calmly. "But he belongs in the forest with all the other...rats and other don't need the rat to be friends with when you've got us."

Marshmallow pouted, but reluctantly agreed. We watched him walk away slowly, carrying the rat with him as he went. Olaf trailed behind, talking excitedly about something or another. Guilt stabbed at me, I hated being the bad guy...But I just hated rats so much. They just stared at you with their beady little eyes, twitching nose, and long, quivering whiskers. I shivered at the thought. When I looked back over at Anna, she was grinning at me.

"I didn't know you were afraid of rats." She said, playfully pushing me.

"I'm not afraid of them." I said cooly. "With you being with child, I didn't want to take any chances of disease." Anna didn't believe me, I could tell.

"Then why did you scream and fall back when you saw it? That looked almost like fear." Anna said.

"I did not scream." I stated. "I merely voiced my surprise. But fine, I don't like rats. Lets just leave it at that."

"Alright, fine." Anna said with a laugh.

"It's getting late. I should go." I said, straightening my dress.

"Wait, why do you have to go? It's not that late." Anna asked, sounding disappointed.

"Don't tell me that you forgot, I've been talking about it all week!" I said, surprised. Normally Anna paid better attention.

"Forget what?" Anna wondered.

"The prince from the Northern Isles is coming to our kingdom to discuss trades." I reminded her. "He'll be here any minute and I have to be ready to greet him."

"Oh yeah, I thought that was tomorrow." Anna admitted, blushing slightly.

"Well, no harm done. Just do not be late for supper and wear something fancy." I told her, then made my way towards the castle to meet Prince Erik.

* * *

When Anna and I entered the dinning room to have supper with Prince Erik, he was already there, waiting for us. I glanced at the clock,worried for a moment that we were late, but Prince Erik was just early.

"Prince Erik," I greeted as I approached him. "It's a pleasure to see you again. This is my sister, Anna."

"It's nice to meet you." Anna said, suddenly looking a bit shy. That wasn't normal of her, I've never known Anna to get shy. I looked Prince Erik over. He was thin and a couple inches taller than myself. He had red, curly hair and light dusting of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His eyes were a forest green and had a couple of small, brown flecks on the iris that normally would probably go unnoticed.

I supposed that he was rather attractive, perhaps that was why Anna seemed shy.

"The pleasure is all mine." Prince Erik said softly. He took her hand and bowed his head down, kissing the back of her hand softly. His eyes fluttered closed and he lingered a moment longer than necessary. Something about him made me uneasy, but I ignored it.

"Shall we sit down?" I asked once he stood up straight. Anna's face was red as a tomato.

"Yes, whatever your cook has made smells delectable." Prince Erik said as we all took our seats.

"Yes, she's the best cook around." Anna said. The servant took off the lids of the dishes and Anna exclaimed in excitement.

"Beef stew again!" She said happily. "It's one of my favorite and its one of her specialties!"

"Well, dig in you two." I told them. Prince Erik picked up his spoon and scooped up some stew, then put it in his mouth. He moaned, slowly taking the spoon from his mouth and looked at Anna, who was blushing again. I noticed she looked slightly uncomfortable, but I wasn't sure exactly why.

"You were right, Princess Anna. You've got one of the best cooks around."

We continued eating, Anna and Erik talking for the most part. I was partially glad that Anna was there because I was horrible at small talk, especially with somebody I barely knew. Anna was good at it, she seemed genuinely interested in what Prince Erik had to say. It wasn't that I wasn't interested, I just didn't like him, it seemed.

He seemed nice and he looked nice, but I didn't like the looks that he was giving Anna. They were hungry, like she was a piece of meat that he wanted. I frowned, perhaps I was just getting jealous again. I would have to stop that, I decided. She was my sister, so If she met a nice man to be with, I would just have to let her.

"So, do you have a girl back home?" Anna asked. Prince Erik smiled.

"Yes I do, and she's almost as pretty as you are." He said, making Anna blush again. I felt relief spread through me. It looked like I didn't have anything to worry about, he already had a girlfriend. That was good. My thoughts drifted off as Anna and Erik talked about his girl back home.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Prince Erik say, "Who's your baby's father?" Anna stiffened next to me. Without thinking, I reached under the table and took her hand, rubbing my thumb over the back of it.

"Uh, well...He had to go away." Anna said, her face was getting pale.

"Who is he, though?" Erik insisted.

"Nobody you would know." I told him, when Anna failed to answer.

"Well, it really is improper for a princess to have a baby with no father." Erik stated. "What will people think? I'm sure they're already starting to wonder." I didn't know what to say and Anna seemed to be at a loss of words as well.

"You really should find somebody to take the father's place." Erik continued. "You wouldn't want it to be lood down upon, would you?" Anna shook her head. She was shaking, I could tell. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and make her feel better. I could almost feel the pain radiating off of her.

"I'm surprised you even got pregnant without being married in the first place." Erik said. " That isn't something that happens first, it's not proper. Normally people are embarrassed in situations like this. Are you embarrassed?"

Anna suddenly took her hand from mine and stood up.

"Excuse me, please." She said quietly. "I'm not feeling well." Before either of us could say anything, she was out the door and gone. I wanted to go after her. I knew she wasn't ill, what Prince Erik said really bothered her, just as it did me.

"Was it something I said?" He looked confused. I wanted to tell him, yes it was. I wanted to yell at him and make him see what he did. But I couldn't. He was a visiting prince from another kingdom, he was important. I would have to make it seem like I liked him, even though I didn't.

"No." I lied. " She gets nauseous sometimes. You know, being pregnant and all."

"Oh, I see." He said. Then I realized that with Anna gone, I would have to try to make small talk. What was there to say? Anna already asked him everything there was.

"Should we get to discussing the trade?" Erik asked, breaking the silence. I could have sighed in relief. Now I wouldn't have to worry about small talk, discussing trades was the last thing to talk about. Once we were done, I could leave and go fine Anna.

After a couple of minutes of talking to him, or rather, him talking to me, I could see that he talked just like the letter that I originally received. He added a lot of unneeded details, often confusing me. Half the time, I didn't know what he was talking about. He kept straying from the original subject, only to lose track of what he was trying to say.

"Oh, wait. What was I saying?" He had asked me at one point and I had no idea what to say. What was he trying to tell me? Weren't we supposed to be talking about trades? We'd been talking for at least an hour and I don't believe we even started on the important stuff. It was going to be a long evening, I could tell.

I wondered what Anna was doing. Was she up in her room? Was she crying? Or was she just sitting there,thinking? Perhaps she was reading, or painting. Hopefully she wasn't talking to the paintings on the walls again. I caught her doing that a couple times already. I remembered telling her that she could always come find me if she was starting to get lonely and needed somebody to talk to. But for some reason, she felt the need to not bother me sometimes. I guess, it was probably normal. Since I locked myself away from her for so long, I shouldn't blame her.

"So we're decided, then?" Prince Erik suddenly asked, shaking me from my thoughts.

"Excuse me?" I asked, slightly embarrassed.

"You would trade your crops for our wool this year." Erik said. "Then when we get back on our feet you'll trade apples as well, and we'll give you some ore along with wool." I nodded, that seemed fair.

"Yes, that sounds fair enough." I told him. "I can have the paperwork ready for you by tomorrow afternoon."

"Excellent." He said with a grin.

"Well, I think that ends our little meeting." I said, eager to go find Anna. "I'll have a servant see you to your room."

"Oh, that won't be necessary. I remember where it is." He said. We stood up and began moving towards the door.

"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to go check on Anna, make sure she's doing alright." I told him, then we went our separate ways. The first place I checked was Anna's room, which was empty. Next I moved onto the library, which was also empty. gallery was empty, save for one maid who was cleaning.

"Have you seen Anna?" I asked the maid.

"No, your Majesty." She said. "I have not seen her at all today." With a frown, I turned and left. I went to go to the garden, thinking she might have went there for some alone time to think. The garden was empty. I was beginning to worry deeply, but I tried to keep a calm head.

Heading back into the castle, I spotted Greta.

"Greta!" I called out, making her stop in her tracks and turn towards me. "Have you seen Anna at all?"

"Yes, my dear." Greta said with a slight frown. "I saw her head into the village. I tried to stop her, she seemed upset about something."

"Did she say where she was going?" I wondered.

"No, she did not." Greta said, regretfully. "I asked her and all she said was that she needed to be alone. I told her to at least wear warmer clothes, since it's getting colder out, but I was unable to stop her. She was very determined."

"I better go find her." I muttered. Then, "Thank you."

I wandered all through town, looking for Anna everywhere. When I was having no luck, I began asking the villagers if they'd seen her. Nobody had. Fear was beginning to get it's crippling grip on me, but I did my best to hold it off. Anna was probably fine.

Finally I spotted a couple of men copping up trees for firewood. I approached them, a little nervously.

"Excuse me." I said, getting their attention. They dropped their axes and bowed.

"Your Majesty, what can I do for you?" One asked.

"Well, I was just wondering if you'd seen my sister, Princess Anna, come through here."

"Yes, she went by here hours ago." The other man spoke up. "She was really upset, crying and everything...I tried to stop her, but she yelled at us to leave her alone."

"Which way did she go?" I asked fearfully. Both men pointed and I felt my heart sink.

"She left the village?" I asked, seeing them point towards the forest beyond. The men nodded. I looked back at the forest and bit my lip. What was I supposed to do. Wait, what kind of question was that? I had to go out and find Anna, that's what I had to do. There wasn't much daylight left and I certainly didn't want her out there all alone at night.

I started walking when I suddenly heard somebody call my name. I turned to see Kristoff and Sven running towards me, so I stopped and waited.

"Elsa, where are you going?" Kristoff asked when he reached me. "You're not leaving the village, are you?"

"Yes, I have to go find Anna." I told him. "She ran off and I need to go bring her back."

"You can't go out there." Kristoff exclaimed.

"Why not?" I demanded.

"There are wolves out there." He explained. "They'll kill you."

"All the more reason for me to go out there." I said, trying to sound calm. "My sister is out there and you can't stop me."

"That's fine, but at least let me go with you." Kristoff said. I was about to protest, but thought better of it. He might come in handy.

"Fine." I agreed. "Lets go." I started to walk towards the forest again.

"Wait, you need a horse." Kristoff said, effectively stopping me in my tracks. "It will be a lot faster." He had a point.

"But I didn't bring one with me and it will take too much time to go back and get one of ours." I said, feeling nervous. Kristoff started looking around and I followed his gaze, which landed on a horse a few feet away from the men I talked to earlier.

"Excuse me, sir?" Kristoff approached one of them and I followed behind. "Does this horse belong to you?" The man shook his head.

"It belongs to him." He gestured towards the other man. Kristoff turned toward him.

"Would you mind if we borrowed your horse?" Kristoff questioned. "We have to go look for the princess and neither of us have a horse with us." The man looked at Kristoff, then at me.

"Yeah that's fine." He said, looking slightly unsure. "Just treat her well and bring her back. Her name's Nora."

"Thank you so much." I told him.

"Do you have any lanterns we can borrow?" Kristoff then asked the two men. One of the men went into the house and came back moments later with two lanterns. I thanked the men again.

Kristoff walked over to the horse and led her to me, then before I knew what happened, Kristoff picked me up and threw me onto the horse before I could protest. Next, he walked over to Sven and jumped on.

"Lets go find Anna." Kristoff said as he took off towards the forest. I'd only ridden a horse a couple of times, but I nudged Nora into moving and soon we were speeding off into the forest to find Anna.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As we rode into the forest my heart was pounding, like the thrumming of the wings of a caged bird. My mouth went dry from fear and my hands were sweating, but felt cold and clammy at the same time. I kept wiping them on my dress to dry them, but the sweat was almost immediately replaced. My chest felt tight and it was hard to breathe.

It was getting dark, that was the scary part. The forest wasn't terrible during the day time, but at night the wolves came out. Anna didn't have anything with her to protect herself with, she wouldn't be able to defend herself against the wolves if they attacked. We weren't much better off. All we had with us was ourselves, the animals, and the lanterns.

We didn't even know which way she went. There was no trail to follow and it was easy to get lost, I was getting more nervous with every passing moment. I didn't really understand why she ran away in the first place. I knew she'd been hurting, especially with what Prince Erik said to her...It really was uncalled for. But she didn't have to run off.

"Where do you think she is?" I asked Kristoff. " She could be anywhere by now!"

"I don't know!" He called back. "She's got hours on us." He looked back and saw the look of horror on my face.

"Don't worry, we'll find her and bring her back safe and sound." He said, trying to comfort me. Though, It did little to ease my worries. I started feeling guilty. Maybe this was my fault, what if she ran off because of me? Perhaps if I had said something in her defense she wouldn't have left. Hopefully she didn't think I was siding with Prince Erik, that would just be stupid and she should know better.

What if Anna was out there, huddled scared, against a tree shivering with cold? Was she afraid? Did she even realize she was in danger? I would hope so. She'd been warned enough as a child.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice a light snow start to fall from the sky.

"Hey..Uh, Elsa?" Kristoff asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Yes?" I asked, turning my head to look at him curiously.

"Mind not making it snow? I know you're scared and worried, but really, it's going to be alright." Kristoff said. "We'll find her safe and sound and bring her back, but maybe not if it continues to snow."

I looked around and noticed the snow for the first time. Kristoff was right. Making it snow might endanger Anna, rather than help. I frowned as I concentrated on making it stop, only to realize moments later that it wasn't my snow. Well that was a first.

"This isn't my snow." I told Kristoff. "This snow is from nature."

"Oh. I'm, uh, sorry...you know, for assuming...I just thought..."

"I know, it's alright." I looked down at the ground and noticed that most of the snow was melting as it landed. It was still cold out, I was sure. Poor Anna was probably out there freezing.

"What are we going to do?" I muttered to myself hours later. There was still no sign of Anna, it was getting colder by the minute and it was too dark to really see anything. The snow had started sticking to the ground and was starting to build.

"I say we find somewhere to set up camp for the night." Kristoff said regretfully. "We won't be able to find her in this dark. Even with our lanterns it's too dark."

"We can't stop looking." I said angrily. "We can still find her."

"It's no use." Kristoff said. "We can find her when the sun comes up." I wanted to protest, but in my heart I knew he was right.

"Lets try to find some sort of shelter." Kristoff said once he realized that I wasn't going to disagree.

"Fine." I said defeated. I wouldn't be able to get any sleep, I would be too worried. We rode around awhile, and I could tell that the horse and Sven were starting to tire as well.

"Maybe we should just stop he-" I started to say but was cut off by Kristoff.

"Stop." He whispered. I quickly stopped my horse and tried to follow his gaze. I gasped when glowing eyes appeared around the trees. A new kind of fear seized me.

"Wolves." Kristoff said, then muttered, "This brings back memories." He turned Sven to took for an escape but we were completely surrounded.

"Uh, Kristoff?" I asked quietly. "What do we do now?" He hesitated before speaking.

"I'm not really sure..." He said, sounding a little worried himself. "I've never been completely surrounded before." Some of the wolves were moving closer, some were growling. The horse underneath me began the shift as she started getting nervous. I stroked her, trying to soothe her increasing fear, but I knew it wasn't working.

For the first time since we left I worried about my Kingdom. What would happen if I didn't return? Anna would be crowned, but what would happen if she got attacked by the wolves too? Who would rule? I shook my head and decided not to think about it. We would make it back and I was going to be bringing Anna with us.

I held my hand up and looked at it, contemplating. I didn't want to kill any of the wolves, I just wanted them to leave us alone. Suddenly my horse made a terrified noise and tried to buck me off. I hung on tight and tried to calm her down, until I realized what happened. A couple of the wolves snuck up behind us.

They growled and snapped at my horse and between the bucking, I could see that they were after Sven as well. Kristoff started steering Sven forward and I followed once I got the horse under control. They were all starting to close in on us. The blood rushed through my body, making my ears pound. My stomach fluttered in fear and my mouth was so dry I couldn't speak. For a moment I felt like I was going to be sick.

Suddenly a wolf jumped up at me and clamped it's sharp teeth on my leg. I yelled in pain and tried to kick it off, but it hung on tightly. Magic shot out of my palm and hit the wolf in the face. I looked away and it fell to the ground, dead. I felt tears filling my eyes and a lump formed in my throat. I just wanted to be back in the castle with Anna.

"Are you alright?" Kristoff yelled out to me.

"Y-Yeah!" I called back. I looked down at my leg and winced. Red was staining the snow underneath. I looked back up and something caught my eye. A distance in front of us, between some wolves and a tree, was a small space that we could possibly escape out of.

"Do you see that space?" I asked Kristoff. He squinted and shook his head, so I raised my hand to point, but accidentally shot ice at the wolves around the area. They yelped and scattered, leaving more room to get away.

"Elsa, lets go! Come on Sven!" Kristoff yelled, seeing the perfect opportunity. Sven took off towards the space and I quickly followed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw wolves starting to chase us. I raised my arm to block them off with ice but wasn't fast enough. I yelled out in pain as a wolf lunged and took hold of my arm, nearly pulling me off the horse.

"Get off!" I screamed, trying to push the wolf off of me. The horse was terrified and started bucking, I held on for dear life with my other arm but I was afraid it wasn't going to be enough. I tried to nudge the wolf off with my good leg, but the wolf growled and dug it's teeth in further. Then it started shaking it's head, causing the flesh to tear more. Kristoff slowed to help.

"Keep going, Kristoff!" I yelled at him. I kicked the wolf in the side with my good leg as hard as I could and it snarled back at me, it's eyes looked to be glowing red.

"Get off of me!" I yelled at it again. Raising my other hand just enough, I shot some ice at it. I looked away before it could hit the ground and was met with another terrifying sight. I had looked up just in time to see a wolf lung at Kristoff and managed to pull him off of Sven. I nudged the horse faster.

When I caught up, Sven was knocking the wolves away from Kristoff with his antlers but I could tell he was struggling to keep them off of both of them.

"Enough!" I yelled as I swung my arm, fear melted away into rage. Ice shot up from the ground, spearing many of the wolves around Kristoff. The wolves that were left yelped and jumped back. They snarled, looking at us with angry eyes. They must have decided that it wasn't worth it with so many of them dead, because the few turned and left.

I jumped off the horse to check on Kristoff, who seemed to be doing remarkably well. He had a couple of bite marks, but he was better covered than I was so the damage wasn't as bad.

"I'm fine." He said, sitting up. He looked at me with wide eyes. "But I'm not so sure if you are." I looked down at myself. My arm had a wide gash and was leaking blood all over the white snow, my leg wasn't much letter.

My stomach churned. I could handle a little bit of blood, but there was just so much. Now that the wolves were gone and the adrenaline was leaving, I could feel the pain. I sunk to my knees as the pain in my leg was too great and I held my arm to my chest.

"I think it's time we found shelter." Kristoff said. "You're hurt pretty badly."

"I'm fine." I said, my breath coming out in short gasps.

"No, you're not." Kristoff said sternly. Next thing I knew, he pick me up and swung me over Sven.

"You can ride Sven." He told him. "I'll take the horse for now." He still led the way. My head was beginning to feel light as we weaved around the trees. The motion made me feel sick, so I leaned forward and buried my face in Sven's neck.

"You okay back there?" Kristoff asked, sounding worried.

"Yeah." My response was muffled. We rode a bit longer when Kristoff suddenly exclaimed.

"Look! There's a house!" Half conscious, I lifted my head and squinted. Sure enough, a house stood among all the trees. There weren't any lights on, but we could see the smoke coming out of the chimney.

"Hurry up, Sven." Kristoff said. I felt the reindeer pick up speed. I almost fell off because I was too weak to hang on, but I managed to somehow. Seconds later we were stopped in front of the little house. I tried to get off of Sven, but ended up sliding off the side and onto the ground. Kristoff rushed over.

"Here, let me help you." He said worried.

"I'm fine." I snapped and pushed him away. He rolled his eyes and let me struggle myself, but stayed nearby.

When we reached the door, Kristoff knocked loudly. I winced as the noise seemed to echo through the trees. I didn't think he needed to knock that hard, but I didn't say anything. Moments later, lights went on inside the house and the door was pulled open roughly.

"What is it?" a plump man with a beard demanded. "Have you any idea what ti-" He stopped when he saw me.

"Who is it, dear?" A woman asked behind him.

"Please, sir." Kristoff said. "May we come in? Queen Elsa is injured." The mans face paled a couple shades but he jumped to the side and let us enter. The woman gasped when she saw me, and rushed forward to help me in.

"What in the world happened to you two?" The woman demanded. The man pulled out a chair from the table and the woman pushed me down into it.

"We were attacked by wolves." Kristoff said. The woman was about to speak but I beat her to it.

"Have you seen my sister?" I asked, looking into the woman's eyes.

"Princess Anna?" The woman questioned. I nodded. "No, she hasn't been through here that I know of. Why, has she gone missing?" I couldn't speak through the lump of disappointment in my throat, so I just nodded again.

"Good Heavens!" She exclaimed. "She's out there by herself?" She looked to her husband, who was already shaking his head.

"It's too dark." He said. "We would never be able to find her."

"I suppose you're right." The woman said quietly. "We should get your wounds wrapped up,anyway." She disappeared into another room and came out moments later with bandages, a small bucket of water and a rag.

"I don't know what's wrong with the wolves in these parts." She muttered to herself as she started cleaning the blood off my leg, then she started wrapping it in bandages. "They've always been vicious, ever since I can remember, anyway. Don't know if wolves are normally like that in other parts...Ridiculous!"

When she was finished with wrapping my leg she moved up to my arm. I looked away, I didn't really want to see it. The bleeding stopped, but the angry teeth mark were still quite visible. When she finished, she patted my knee and then stood up. She moved on to Kristoff, who didn't complain or protest her help. When she finished with him, she turned back to me.

"I never dreamed the queen would show up at our doorstep." She said. "I never got to introduce myself. I'm Anja." She bowed slightly, "And this is my husband, Arvid."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." I nodded at her. "Thank you for letting us in tonight. How can I repay you?"

"By getting better." She said sternly. I could tell that she was a mother at some point in her life. "Now, follow me so you can get some sleep. Arvid and I will help the two of you look for your sister first thing in the morning." I nodded and followed her, a bit unsteady, into the other room. There was a neatly made bed pushed off into the corner of the room. It looked like it hadn't been slept in in quite awhile.

"I don't know if I'll be able to sleep." I told her. "I'm worried for Anna and the baby."

"Baby?" Anja wondered. Had she not known? How? I thought everybody knew. I guess we were further out than I thought.

"Yes, Anna's pregnant." I said quietly. Anja placed her hand over her heart and gasped, then looked at Arvid.

"Did you hear that, Arvid?Princess Anna's with child and she's out there all alone."

"Yeah and it will be morning soon, we can find her tomorrow."He grunted, then left the room. Anja gave Kristoff some extra blankets and told us to sleep. I laid on top of the bed and Kristoff spread some blankets on the floor, but I didn't sleep.. I could hear Anja and Arvid talking quietly from their room and hours later, the sun started coming up.

I got off the bed and nudged Kristoff, who rolled over and grumbled sleepily. I nudged him again and he rolled back the other way to look at me.

"What?" He asked.

"The sun is up." I told him. His eyes widened and he sat up.

"I guess we should go find Anna now." He responded. " Are Anja and Arvid awake?"

"I think so. They've been talking all night." I told him. He looked at me.

"Didn't you get any sleep at all?" I shook my head and started towards the door, but winced at the pain in my leg.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kristoff asked, taking hold of my arm.

"Of course." I said and pulled my arm back.

"Fine." Kristoff said. We walked into the next room and I could see Kristoff watching me closely. I had to smile a little. I wasn't used to other people caring so much. When we entered the other room, Anja and Arvid were sitting at the table.

"Would you two like some tea?" Anja asked.

"No thank you," I told her, trying not to sound rude. "I would really just like to go find my sister."

"Very well." Anja said with a nod. "Arvid, why don't you go out there and help them?"

"Already planned on it." He grumped. He got up from his chair and headed towards the door. "I'm just going to go prepare my horse." Before we could say anything he was out the door.

"He's a little grumpy." Anja said, "But don't pay him any mind, he's nice on the inside."

"Right..." Kristoff said. "Well, I guess we should go check on Sven and the horse." I nodded at him.

"Thank you so much for your help." I told Anja. "Let us know if there is anything we can do for you."

"Just go find your sister." She said with a smile. She got up from her chair and walked towards me.

"Be safe." she said, then wrapped her arms around me tightly. I was frozen in confusion. I glanced at Kristoff, who shrugged at me with wide eyes. After a moment of hesitation, I gently returned the hug.

"Alright now, get out there and find Anna." She said pushing us out and shut the door.

"Did she seem a little...sad?" I asked Kristoff. "I think I saw some tears in her eyes."

"Yeah, she did. Maybe she's just worried for Anna?" He suggested.

"Probably." I agreed. My horse and Sven were waiting outside right out front for us so I limped my way over to her.

"Hey." I said as I scratched her between the ears, she seemed like it. "I hope you're doing alright."

"I'm sure she's fine." Kristoff said.

"I don't know, she was pretty scared last night." I responded. She looked fine now, she even looked well rested-for a horse, anyway.

I tried to pull myself up onto her, but I was still too weak and didn't make it. I tried again, not wanting to ask Kristoff for help. I slid off again. I rested my head on the horses side in defeat.

"Hey Kristoff...Do you think you could...help me?" I asked, slight embarrassment rising within myself.

"Sure." He responded and made his way over. I expected him to just give me a boost but I squeaked in surprise when he picked me up completely and swung me over onto the horse. I was about to say something to him, but Arvid came around on his horse.

"Lets get this over with." He said. I glanced at Kristoff, who had gotten on Sven. He looked at me seriously and nodded. Arvid started moving so Kristoff and I started following. I glanced back at the house and saw Anja standing in the window. She was clamping a handkerchief to her chest and she looked upset. I frowned, wondering why, but kept on into the forest.


End file.
